Ecosystems on ice: the microbial ecology of Markham Ice Shelf in the high Arctic
Microbial communities occur throughout the cryosphere in a diverse range of ice-dominated habitats including snow, sea ice, glaciers, permafrost, and ice clouds. In each of these environments, organisms must be capable of surviving freeze–thaw cycles, persistent low temperatures for growth, extremes...
Published in: | Cryobiology |
---|---|
Main Authors: | , , |
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | unknown |
Published: |
2004
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | https://curve.carleton.ca/6f24f84c-50ee-4307-8d6c-97ea2c604847 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cryobiol.2004.01.006 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0011224004000057 |
id |
ftcarletonuniv:oai:curve.carleton.ca:25017 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
ftcarletonuniv:oai:curve.carleton.ca:25017 2023-05-15T13:42:58+02:00 Ecosystems on ice: the microbial ecology of Markham Ice Shelf in the high Arctic Vincent, W.F. Mueller, D.R. Bonilla, S. 2004-04-01 https://curve.carleton.ca/6f24f84c-50ee-4307-8d6c-97ea2c604847 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cryobiol.2004.01.006 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0011224004000057 unknown https://curve.carleton.ca/6f24f84c-50ee-4307-8d6c-97ea2c604847 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cryobiol.2004.01.006 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0011224004000057 Journal Article 2004 ftcarletonuniv https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cryobiol.2004.01.006 2022-01-23T08:18:37Z Microbial communities occur throughout the cryosphere in a diverse range of ice-dominated habitats including snow, sea ice, glaciers, permafrost, and ice clouds. In each of these environments, organisms must be capable of surviving freeze–thaw cycles, persistent low temperatures for growth, extremes of solar radiation, and prolonged dormancy. These constraints may have been especially important during global cooling events in the past, including the Precambrian glaciations. One analogue of these early Earth conditions is the thick, landfast sea ice that occurs today at certain locations in the Arctic and Antarctic. These ice shelves contain liquid water for a brief period each summer, and support luxuriant microbial mat communities. Our recent studies of these mats on the Markham Ice Shelf (Canadian high Arctic) by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) showed that they contain high concentrations of chlorophylls a and b, and several carotenoids notably lutein, echinenone and β-carotene. The largest peaks in the HPLC chromatograms were two UV-screening compounds known to be produced by cyanobacteria, scytonemin, and its decomposition product scytonemin-red. Microscopic analyses of the mats showed that they were dominated by the chlorophyte genera cf. Chlorosarcinopsis, Pleurastrum, Palmellopsis, and Bracteococcus, and cyanobacteria of the genera Nostoc, Phormidium, Leptolyngbya, and Gloeocapsa. From point transects and localized sampling we estimated a total standing stock on this ice shelf of up to 11,200 tonnes of organic matter. These observations underscore the ability of microbial communities to flourish despite the severe constraints imposed by the cryo-ecosystem environment. Keywords Algae; Arctic; Cyanobacteria; Cryo-ecosystems; Extremophiles; Ice; Lutein; Microbiology; Pigments; Polar; Scytonemin; Snowball Earth Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctic Arctic Ice Ice Shelf Ice Shelves Markham Ice Shelf permafrost Sea ice CURVE - Carleton University Research Virtual Environment Arctic Antarctic Markham ENVELOPE(-57.358,-57.358,-64.296,-64.296) Cryobiology 48 2 103 112 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
CURVE - Carleton University Research Virtual Environment |
op_collection_id |
ftcarletonuniv |
language |
unknown |
description |
Microbial communities occur throughout the cryosphere in a diverse range of ice-dominated habitats including snow, sea ice, glaciers, permafrost, and ice clouds. In each of these environments, organisms must be capable of surviving freeze–thaw cycles, persistent low temperatures for growth, extremes of solar radiation, and prolonged dormancy. These constraints may have been especially important during global cooling events in the past, including the Precambrian glaciations. One analogue of these early Earth conditions is the thick, landfast sea ice that occurs today at certain locations in the Arctic and Antarctic. These ice shelves contain liquid water for a brief period each summer, and support luxuriant microbial mat communities. Our recent studies of these mats on the Markham Ice Shelf (Canadian high Arctic) by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) showed that they contain high concentrations of chlorophylls a and b, and several carotenoids notably lutein, echinenone and β-carotene. The largest peaks in the HPLC chromatograms were two UV-screening compounds known to be produced by cyanobacteria, scytonemin, and its decomposition product scytonemin-red. Microscopic analyses of the mats showed that they were dominated by the chlorophyte genera cf. Chlorosarcinopsis, Pleurastrum, Palmellopsis, and Bracteococcus, and cyanobacteria of the genera Nostoc, Phormidium, Leptolyngbya, and Gloeocapsa. From point transects and localized sampling we estimated a total standing stock on this ice shelf of up to 11,200 tonnes of organic matter. These observations underscore the ability of microbial communities to flourish despite the severe constraints imposed by the cryo-ecosystem environment. Keywords Algae; Arctic; Cyanobacteria; Cryo-ecosystems; Extremophiles; Ice; Lutein; Microbiology; Pigments; Polar; Scytonemin; Snowball Earth |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Vincent, W.F. Mueller, D.R. Bonilla, S. |
spellingShingle |
Vincent, W.F. Mueller, D.R. Bonilla, S. Ecosystems on ice: the microbial ecology of Markham Ice Shelf in the high Arctic |
author_facet |
Vincent, W.F. Mueller, D.R. Bonilla, S. |
author_sort |
Vincent, W.F. |
title |
Ecosystems on ice: the microbial ecology of Markham Ice Shelf in the high Arctic |
title_short |
Ecosystems on ice: the microbial ecology of Markham Ice Shelf in the high Arctic |
title_full |
Ecosystems on ice: the microbial ecology of Markham Ice Shelf in the high Arctic |
title_fullStr |
Ecosystems on ice: the microbial ecology of Markham Ice Shelf in the high Arctic |
title_full_unstemmed |
Ecosystems on ice: the microbial ecology of Markham Ice Shelf in the high Arctic |
title_sort |
ecosystems on ice: the microbial ecology of markham ice shelf in the high arctic |
publishDate |
2004 |
url |
https://curve.carleton.ca/6f24f84c-50ee-4307-8d6c-97ea2c604847 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cryobiol.2004.01.006 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0011224004000057 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-57.358,-57.358,-64.296,-64.296) |
geographic |
Arctic Antarctic Markham |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Antarctic Markham |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Arctic Ice Ice Shelf Ice Shelves Markham Ice Shelf permafrost Sea ice |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Arctic Ice Ice Shelf Ice Shelves Markham Ice Shelf permafrost Sea ice |
op_relation |
https://curve.carleton.ca/6f24f84c-50ee-4307-8d6c-97ea2c604847 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cryobiol.2004.01.006 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0011224004000057 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cryobiol.2004.01.006 |
container_title |
Cryobiology |
container_volume |
48 |
container_issue |
2 |
container_start_page |
103 |
op_container_end_page |
112 |
_version_ |
1766181131859787776 |