Hypolithic communities: Important nitrogen sources in Antarc
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TitleHypolithic communities: Important nitrogen sources in Antarctic desert soilsAbstractHypolithic microbial communities (i.e. cryptic microbial assemblages found on the undersides of translucent rocks) are major contributors of carbon input into the oligotrophic hyper-arid desert mineral soils of the Eastern Antarctic Dry Valleys. Here we demonstrate, for the first time, that hypolithic microbial communities possess both the genetic capacity for nitrogen fixation (i.e. the presence of nifH genes) and the ability to catalyse acetylene reduction, an accepted proxy for dinitrogen fixation. An estimate of the total contribution of these communities suggests that hypolithic communities are important contributors to fixed nitrogen budgets in Antarctic desert soils. Copyright 2011 Society for Applied Microbiology and Blackwell Publishing Ltd.AcknowledgementsThe authors wish to thank the following organizations for financial support: the South African National Research Foundation and the University of the Western Cape (D.A.C., I.M.T., T.P.M.), Antarctica New Zealand, The New Zealand Government and the University of Waikato FRST research project (Understanding, valuing and protecting AntarcticaÅ› unique terrestrial ecosystems: Predicting biocomplexity in Dry Valley ecosystems) (S.C.C., T.G.A.G.) and the US National Science Foundation (Project ANT 0739640) (J.A.S., D.G.C.).
TypeArticleCitationCowan, D., Sohm, J., Makhalanyane, T., Capone, D., Green, T., Cary, S. and Tuffin, I. (2011). Hypolithic communities: Important nitrogen sources in {Antarctic} desert soils. Environmental Microbiology Reports, 3(5): 581-586 IdentifierCowan2011bRelevancerank5
