Towards physical habitat characterisation in the Antarctic Sør Rondane Mountains using satellite remote sensing

Vanhellemont, Quinten; Lambrechts, Sam; Savaglia, Valentina; Tytgat, Bjorn; Verleyen, Elie; Vyverman, Wim

doi:10.1016/j.rsase.2021.100529

Cited by 2 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 67 publications

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“…5), and we know from our recent high-resolution remote sensing study of the Dry Valleys ASMA (Hawes et al 2021) that an order of magnitude more water bodies exist than current maps show. We recommend that further effort is devoted to better validating the distribution of inland water bodies across the continent using remote sensing tools (see also Salvatore et al 2020, Vanhellemont et al 2021) and advocate for international efforts to coordinate continent-wide biodiversity assessments. There is also growing use of remotely piloted aircraft systems (drones) within research programmes, and these offer opportunities for resource mapping at high resolution.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The need for increased protection of Antarctica's inland waters

Hawes

Howard‐Williams

Gilbert³

et al. 2023

Antarctic Science

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Protection of Antarctica's biodiversity and ecosystem values is enshrined in the Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty, which provides for the designation of Antarctic Specially Protected Areas (ASPAs) to areas with outstanding values. Concern has been raised that existing ASPAs fail to prioritize areas to maximize the likelihood of ensuring the long-term conservation of Antarctic ecosystems and biodiversity. The absence of systematic and representative protection is particularly acute for inland aquatic ecosystems, which support a disproportionate amount of inland biodiversity. This paper promotes the case for overt inclusion of inland waters as a critical component of a representative protected area framework for Antarctica, thereby addressing their current underrepresentation. We set out a structured approach to enable the selection of representative freshwater systems for inclusion in the ASPA framework that, with modification, could also be applied across other Antarctic habitats. We acknowledge an overall lack of information on the biogeography of inland aquatic diversity and recommend increased use of remote data collection along with classification tools to mitigate this, as well as the need for the consideration of catchment-scale processes. Changes that accompany contemporary and anticipated climate change make the need for the conservation of representative biodiversity increasingly urgent.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The need for increased protection of Antarctica's inland waters

Hawes

Howard‐Williams

Gilbert³

et al. 2023

Antarctic Science

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“…Geographical coordinates of each sampled location were taken with a Garmin 62nd/64st/Montana® 680 GPS. Elevation data were retrieved from the geographical coordinates as described in Vanhellemont et al (2021) and are shown in Figure 1 and in Supplementary Table S1 . Soil was passed through a sterile 3 mm sieve for homogenization and to remove large particles before analysis.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Geology defines microbiome structure and composition in nunataks and valleys of the Sør Rondane Mountains, East Antarctica

Savaglia,

Lambrechts,

Tytgat

et al. 2024

Front. Microbiol.

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Understanding the relation between terrestrial microorganisms and edaphic factors in the Antarctic can provide insights into their potential response to environmental changes. Here we examined the composition of bacterial and micro-eukaryotic communities using amplicon sequencing of rRNA genes in 105 soil samples from the Sør Rondane Mountains (East Antarctica), differing in bedrock or substrate type and associated physicochemical conditions. Although the two most widespread taxa (Acidobacteriota and Chlorophyta) were relatively abundant in each sample, multivariate analysis and co-occurrence networks revealed pronounced differences in community structure depending on substrate type. In moraine substrates, Actinomycetota and Cercozoa were the most abundant bacterial and eukaryotic phyla, whereas on gneiss, granite and marble substrates, Cyanobacteriota and Metazoa were the dominant bacterial and eukaryotic taxa. However, at lower taxonomic level, a distinct differentiation was observed within the Cyanobacteriota phylum depending on substrate type, with granite being dominated by the Nostocaceae family and marble by the Chroococcidiopsaceae family. Surprisingly, metazoans were relatively abundant according to the 18S rRNA dataset, even in samples from the most arid sites, such as moraines in Austkampane and Widerøefjellet (“Dry Valley”). Overall, our study shows that different substrate types support distinct microbial communities, and that mineral soil diversity is a major determinant of terrestrial microbial diversity in inland Antarctic nunataks and valleys.

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Towards physical habitat characterisation in the Antarctic Sør Rondane Mountains using satellite remote sensing

Cited by 2 publications

References 67 publications

The need for increased protection of Antarctica's inland waters

The need for increased protection of Antarctica's inland waters

Geology defines microbiome structure and composition in nunataks and valleys of the Sør Rondane Mountains, East Antarctica

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