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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Clare McCannORCiD, Dr Matthew WadeORCiD, Emeritus Professor Neil GrayORCiD, Dr Casey Hubert, Professor David GrahamORCiD
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
The High Arctic is dominated by polar desert habitats whose microbial communities are poorly understood. In this study, we used next generation sequencing to describe the α- and β-diversity of polar desert soils from the Kongsfjorden region of Svalbard. Ten phyla consistently dominated the soils and accounted for 95 % of all sequences, with Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria and Chloroflexi being the dominant lineages. In contrast to previous investigations of Arctic soils, Acidobacterial relative abundances were low as were the Archaea throughout the Kongsfjorden polar desert landscape. Lower Acidobacterial abundances were attributed to the circumneutral soil pH in this region which has resulted from the weathering of the underlying carbonate geology. In addition, we correlated previously measured geochemical variables to determine potential controls on the communities. Soil phosphorus, pH, nitrogen and calcium significantly correlated with β-diversity indicating a landscape scale lithological control of soil nutrients which in turn influenced community composition. In addition, soil phosphorus and pH significantly correlated with α- diversity, specifically the Shannon diversity and Chao 1 richness indices.
Author(s): McCann CM, Wade MJ, Gray ND, Roberts JA, Hubert CRJ, Graham DW
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Frontiers in Microbiology
Year: 2016
Volume: 7
Online publication date: 31/03/2016
Acceptance date: 15/03/2016
Date deposited: 18/03/2016
ISSN (electronic): 1664-302X
Publisher: Frontiers Research Foundation
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2016.00419
DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2016.00419
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