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...
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ftcarletonunivir:oai:carleton.ca:25889 2023-05-15T13:42:01+02:00 Ecosystems on ice: The microbial ecology of Markham Ice Shelf in the high Arctic Vincent, W.F. (Warwick F.) Mueller, D. (Derek) Bonilla, S. (Sylvia) 2004-04-01 https://ir.library.carleton.ca/pub/25889 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cryobiol.2004.01.006 en eng https://ir.library.carleton.ca/pub/25889 doi:10.1016/j.cryobiol.2004.01.006 Cryobiology vol. 48 no. 2, pp. 103-112 Algae Arctic Cryo-ecosystems Cyanobacteria Extremophiles Ice Lutein Microbiology Pigments Polar Scytonemin Snowball Earth info:eu-repo/semantics/other 2004 ftcarletonunivir https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cryobiol.2004.01.006 2022-02-06T21:51:19Z 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. Other/Unknown Material Antarc* Antarctic Arctic Ice Ice Shelf Ice Shelves Markham Ice Shelf permafrost Sea ice Carleton University's Institutional Repository Antarctic Arctic Markham ENVELOPE(-57.358,-57.358,-64.296,-64.296) Cryobiology 48 2 103 112 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Carleton University's Institutional Repository |
op_collection_id |
ftcarletonunivir |
language |
English |
topic |
Algae Arctic Cryo-ecosystems Cyanobacteria Extremophiles Ice Lutein Microbiology Pigments Polar Scytonemin Snowball Earth |
spellingShingle |
Algae Arctic Cryo-ecosystems Cyanobacteria Extremophiles Ice Lutein Microbiology Pigments Polar Scytonemin Snowball Earth Vincent, W.F. (Warwick F.) Mueller, D. (Derek) Bonilla, S. (Sylvia) Ecosystems on ice: The microbial ecology of Markham Ice Shelf in the high Arctic |
topic_facet |
Algae Arctic Cryo-ecosystems Cyanobacteria Extremophiles Ice Lutein Microbiology Pigments Polar Scytonemin Snowball Earth |
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. |
format |
Other/Unknown Material |
author |
Vincent, W.F. (Warwick F.) Mueller, D. (Derek) Bonilla, S. (Sylvia) |
author_facet |
Vincent, W.F. (Warwick F.) Mueller, D. (Derek) Bonilla, S. (Sylvia) |
author_sort |
Vincent, W.F. (Warwick 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://ir.library.carleton.ca/pub/25889 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cryobiol.2004.01.006 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-57.358,-57.358,-64.296,-64.296) |
geographic |
Antarctic Arctic Markham |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic Arctic 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_source |
Cryobiology vol. 48 no. 2, pp. 103-112 |
op_relation |
https://ir.library.carleton.ca/pub/25889 doi:10.1016/j.cryobiol.2004.01.006 |
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_ |
1766161882246283264 |