The Pyramid Trough Wetland: Environmental and biological div

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TitleThe Pyramid Trough Wetland: Environmental and biological diversity in a newly created Antarctic protected areaAbstractThe Pyramid Trough (Lat 78 deg S) has recently gained protection under the Antarctic Treaty system, owing to its wetland values. Here, we describe the microbial diversity of this system, with emphasis on cyanobacteria, and evaluate environment-biota relationships. Geochemistry separates ponds along hydrological gradients receiving recent inflows of dilute meltwater, from a second group that is rarely inundated and where chemistry is dominated by evaporation. Cyanobacteria-based microbial mats dominated the biota throughout. Mats were characterized by light-microscopy, pigment analysis, automated ribosomal intergenic spacer analysis and 16S rRNA gene clone libraries. A total of 17 morphotypes and 21 ribotypes were identified, mostly Oscillatoriales and several taxa that are usually rare in continental Antarctica, including Chroococcales and scytomin-rich Calothrix/Dichothrix, were abundant. There was a general decline in cyanobacterial diversity with increasing conductivity, but weak support for either differences in community composition between the two groups of ponds or sorting of taxa along the hydrological gradients with the pond groups. This implies a broad environmental tolerance and a prevalence of neutral assembly mechanisms in cyanobacterial communities of Antarctic wetland ecosystems. Copyright 2012 Federation of European Microbiological Societies. Published by Blackwell Publishing Ltd.AcknowledgementsThe authors would like to acknowledge logistic support of Antarctica New Zealand and the US Antarctic Programme, the financial support from New Zealand Ministry of Science and Innovation through grant C01X-0306 to the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, support from all of our home institutions and two anonymous reviewers for insightful comments and suggestions.

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1st AuthorJungblut, A.AuthorJungblut, A.Wood, S.Hawes, I.Webster-Brown, J.Harris, C.Year2012JournalFEMS Microbiology EcologyVolume82Number2Pages356-366DOI10.1111/j.1574-6941.2012.01380.xURLhttps://www.scopus.com/inward/recor.....e91ffe174925077b9bf2656a4Keywordsbacterial DNAribosomal spacer DNARNA 16S, Antarctic Treatycyanobacteriumhydrological changeinflowmeltwatermicrobial activitymicrobial communitymicrobial matmorphotypepondprotected areawetland, Antarcticaarticlebiodiversitybiotaclassificationcyanobacteriumgene librarygeneticsmicrobiologyphylogenyrestriction fragment length polymorphismribotypingRNA genewetland, Antarctic RegionsBiodiversityBiotaCyanobacteriaDNA, BacterialDNA, Ribosomal SpacerGene LibraryGenes, rRNAPhylogenyPolymorphism, Restriction Fragment LengthRibotypingRNA, Ribosomal, 16SWater MicrobiologyWetlands, Antarctica, ChroococcalesCyanobacteriaOscillatoriales, rank5Author Keywords16S rRNA geneAntarcticaCyanobacteriaMicrobial matWetland

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TypeArticleCitationJungblut, A., Wood, S., Hawes, I., Webster-Brown, J. and Harris, C. (2012). The Pyramid Trough Wetland: Environmental and biological diversity in a newly created Antarctic protected area. FEMS Microbiology Ecology, 82(2): 356-366