Following the flow—Microbial ecology in surface‐ and groundwaters in the glacial forefield of a rapidly retreating glacier in Iceland
Abstract The retreat of glaciers in response to climate change has major impacts on the hydrology and ecosystems of glacier forefield catchments. Microbes are key players in ecosystem functionality, supporting the supply of ecosystem services that glacier systems provide. The interaction between sur...
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1462-2920.16104 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/1462-2920.16104 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full-xml/10.1111/1462-2920.16104 |
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crwiley:10.1111/1462-2920.16104 2024-09-30T14:35:24+00:00 Following the flow—Microbial ecology in surface‐ and groundwaters in the glacial forefield of a rapidly retreating glacier in Iceland Purkamo, Lotta Ó Dochartaigh, Brighid MacDonald, Alan Cousins, Claire British Geological Survey Leverhulme Trust 2022 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1462-2920.16104 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/1462-2920.16104 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full-xml/10.1111/1462-2920.16104 en eng Wiley http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ Environmental Microbiology volume 24, issue 12, page 5840-5858 ISSN 1462-2912 1462-2920 journal-article 2022 crwiley https://doi.org/10.1111/1462-2920.16104 2024-09-17T04:46:51Z Abstract The retreat of glaciers in response to climate change has major impacts on the hydrology and ecosystems of glacier forefield catchments. Microbes are key players in ecosystem functionality, supporting the supply of ecosystem services that glacier systems provide. The interaction between surface and groundwaters in glacier forefields has only recently gained much attention, and how these interactions influence the microbiology is still unclear. Here, we identify the microbial communities in groundwater from shallow (<15 m deep) boreholes in a glacial forefield floodplain (‘sandur’) aquifer at different distances from the rapidly retreating Virkisjökull glacier, Iceland, and with varying hydraulic connectivity with the glacial meltwater river that flows over the sandur. Groundwater communities are shown to differ from those in nearby glacial and non‐glacial surface water communities. Groundwater–meltwater interactions and groundwater flow dynamics affect the microbial community structure, leading to different microbial communities at different sampling points in the glacier forefield. Groundwater communities differ from those in nearby glacial and non‐glacial surface waters. Functional potential for microbial nitrogen and methane cycling was detected, although the functional gene copy numbers of specific groups were low. Article in Journal/Newspaper glacier Iceland Wiley Online Library Environmental Microbiology |
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Open Polar |
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Wiley Online Library |
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crwiley |
language |
English |
description |
Abstract The retreat of glaciers in response to climate change has major impacts on the hydrology and ecosystems of glacier forefield catchments. Microbes are key players in ecosystem functionality, supporting the supply of ecosystem services that glacier systems provide. The interaction between surface and groundwaters in glacier forefields has only recently gained much attention, and how these interactions influence the microbiology is still unclear. Here, we identify the microbial communities in groundwater from shallow (<15 m deep) boreholes in a glacial forefield floodplain (‘sandur’) aquifer at different distances from the rapidly retreating Virkisjökull glacier, Iceland, and with varying hydraulic connectivity with the glacial meltwater river that flows over the sandur. Groundwater communities are shown to differ from those in nearby glacial and non‐glacial surface water communities. Groundwater–meltwater interactions and groundwater flow dynamics affect the microbial community structure, leading to different microbial communities at different sampling points in the glacier forefield. Groundwater communities differ from those in nearby glacial and non‐glacial surface waters. Functional potential for microbial nitrogen and methane cycling was detected, although the functional gene copy numbers of specific groups were low. |
author2 |
British Geological Survey Leverhulme Trust |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Purkamo, Lotta Ó Dochartaigh, Brighid MacDonald, Alan Cousins, Claire |
spellingShingle |
Purkamo, Lotta Ó Dochartaigh, Brighid MacDonald, Alan Cousins, Claire Following the flow—Microbial ecology in surface‐ and groundwaters in the glacial forefield of a rapidly retreating glacier in Iceland |
author_facet |
Purkamo, Lotta Ó Dochartaigh, Brighid MacDonald, Alan Cousins, Claire |
author_sort |
Purkamo, Lotta |
title |
Following the flow—Microbial ecology in surface‐ and groundwaters in the glacial forefield of a rapidly retreating glacier in Iceland |
title_short |
Following the flow—Microbial ecology in surface‐ and groundwaters in the glacial forefield of a rapidly retreating glacier in Iceland |
title_full |
Following the flow—Microbial ecology in surface‐ and groundwaters in the glacial forefield of a rapidly retreating glacier in Iceland |
title_fullStr |
Following the flow—Microbial ecology in surface‐ and groundwaters in the glacial forefield of a rapidly retreating glacier in Iceland |
title_full_unstemmed |
Following the flow—Microbial ecology in surface‐ and groundwaters in the glacial forefield of a rapidly retreating glacier in Iceland |
title_sort |
following the flow—microbial ecology in surface‐ and groundwaters in the glacial forefield of a rapidly retreating glacier in iceland |
publisher |
Wiley |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1462-2920.16104 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/1462-2920.16104 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full-xml/10.1111/1462-2920.16104 |
genre |
glacier Iceland |
genre_facet |
glacier Iceland |
op_source |
Environmental Microbiology volume 24, issue 12, page 5840-5858 ISSN 1462-2912 1462-2920 |
op_rights |
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1111/1462-2920.16104 |
container_title |
Environmental Microbiology |
_version_ |
1811638685357047808 |