Microbial communities in dark oligotrophic volcanic ice cave ecosystems of Mt. Erebus, Antarctica.
The Earth's crust hosts a subsurface, dark, and oligotrophic biosphere that is poorly understood in terms of the energy supporting its biomass production and impact on food webs at the Earth's surface. Dark oligotrophic volcanic ecosystems (DOVEs) are good environments for investigations o...
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ftcdlib:oai:escholarship.org/ark:/13030/qt2gr9z5d5 2023-05-15T13:52:34+02:00 Microbial communities in dark oligotrophic volcanic ice cave ecosystems of Mt. Erebus, Antarctica. Tebo, Bradley M Davis, Richard E Anitori, Roberto P Connell, Laurie B Schiffman, Peter Staudigel, Hubert 179 2015-01-01 application/pdf https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2gr9z5d5 unknown eScholarship, University of California qt2gr9z5d5 https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2gr9z5d5 public Frontiers in microbiology, vol 6, iss MAR RubisCO carbon monoxide chemolithoautotrophy oligotrophy ribulose-1 5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase Environmental Science and Management Soil Sciences Microbiology article 2015 ftcdlib 2020-10-13T16:03:30Z The Earth's crust hosts a subsurface, dark, and oligotrophic biosphere that is poorly understood in terms of the energy supporting its biomass production and impact on food webs at the Earth's surface. Dark oligotrophic volcanic ecosystems (DOVEs) are good environments for investigations of life in the absence of sunlight as they are poor in organics, rich in chemical reactants and well known for chemical exchange with Earth's surface systems. Ice caves near the summit of Mt. Erebus (Antarctica) offer DOVEs in a polar alpine environment that is starved in organics and with oxygenated hydrothermal circulation in highly reducing host rock. We surveyed the microbial communities using PCR, cloning, sequencing and analysis of the small subunit (16S) ribosomal and Ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate Carboxylase/Oxygenase (RubisCO) genes in sediment samples from three different caves, two that are completely dark and one that receives snow-filtered sunlight seasonally. The microbial communities in all three caves are composed primarily of Bacteria and fungi; Archaea were not detected. The bacterial communities from these ice caves display low phylogenetic diversity, but with a remarkable diversity of RubisCO genes including new deeply branching Form I clades, implicating the Calvin-Benson-Bassham (CBB) cycle as a pathway of CO2 fixation. The microbial communities in one of the dark caves, Warren Cave, which has a remarkably low phylogenetic diversity, were analyzed in more detail to gain a possible perspective on the energetic basis of the microbial ecosystem in the cave. Atmospheric carbon (CO2 and CO), including from volcanic emissions, likely supplies carbon and/or some of the energy requirements of chemoautotrophic microbial communities in Warren Cave and probably other Mt. Erebus ice caves. Our work casts a first glimpse at Mt. Erebus ice caves as natural laboratories for exploring carbon, energy and nutrient sources in the subsurface biosphere and the nutritional limits on life. Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctica University of California: eScholarship Calvin ENVELOPE(165.100,165.100,-71.283,-71.283) |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
University of California: eScholarship |
op_collection_id |
ftcdlib |
language |
unknown |
topic |
RubisCO carbon monoxide chemolithoautotrophy oligotrophy ribulose-1 5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase Environmental Science and Management Soil Sciences Microbiology |
spellingShingle |
RubisCO carbon monoxide chemolithoautotrophy oligotrophy ribulose-1 5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase Environmental Science and Management Soil Sciences Microbiology Tebo, Bradley M Davis, Richard E Anitori, Roberto P Connell, Laurie B Schiffman, Peter Staudigel, Hubert Microbial communities in dark oligotrophic volcanic ice cave ecosystems of Mt. Erebus, Antarctica. |
topic_facet |
RubisCO carbon monoxide chemolithoautotrophy oligotrophy ribulose-1 5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase Environmental Science and Management Soil Sciences Microbiology |
description |
The Earth's crust hosts a subsurface, dark, and oligotrophic biosphere that is poorly understood in terms of the energy supporting its biomass production and impact on food webs at the Earth's surface. Dark oligotrophic volcanic ecosystems (DOVEs) are good environments for investigations of life in the absence of sunlight as they are poor in organics, rich in chemical reactants and well known for chemical exchange with Earth's surface systems. Ice caves near the summit of Mt. Erebus (Antarctica) offer DOVEs in a polar alpine environment that is starved in organics and with oxygenated hydrothermal circulation in highly reducing host rock. We surveyed the microbial communities using PCR, cloning, sequencing and analysis of the small subunit (16S) ribosomal and Ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate Carboxylase/Oxygenase (RubisCO) genes in sediment samples from three different caves, two that are completely dark and one that receives snow-filtered sunlight seasonally. The microbial communities in all three caves are composed primarily of Bacteria and fungi; Archaea were not detected. The bacterial communities from these ice caves display low phylogenetic diversity, but with a remarkable diversity of RubisCO genes including new deeply branching Form I clades, implicating the Calvin-Benson-Bassham (CBB) cycle as a pathway of CO2 fixation. The microbial communities in one of the dark caves, Warren Cave, which has a remarkably low phylogenetic diversity, were analyzed in more detail to gain a possible perspective on the energetic basis of the microbial ecosystem in the cave. Atmospheric carbon (CO2 and CO), including from volcanic emissions, likely supplies carbon and/or some of the energy requirements of chemoautotrophic microbial communities in Warren Cave and probably other Mt. Erebus ice caves. Our work casts a first glimpse at Mt. Erebus ice caves as natural laboratories for exploring carbon, energy and nutrient sources in the subsurface biosphere and the nutritional limits on life. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Tebo, Bradley M Davis, Richard E Anitori, Roberto P Connell, Laurie B Schiffman, Peter Staudigel, Hubert |
author_facet |
Tebo, Bradley M Davis, Richard E Anitori, Roberto P Connell, Laurie B Schiffman, Peter Staudigel, Hubert |
author_sort |
Tebo, Bradley M |
title |
Microbial communities in dark oligotrophic volcanic ice cave ecosystems of Mt. Erebus, Antarctica. |
title_short |
Microbial communities in dark oligotrophic volcanic ice cave ecosystems of Mt. Erebus, Antarctica. |
title_full |
Microbial communities in dark oligotrophic volcanic ice cave ecosystems of Mt. Erebus, Antarctica. |
title_fullStr |
Microbial communities in dark oligotrophic volcanic ice cave ecosystems of Mt. Erebus, Antarctica. |
title_full_unstemmed |
Microbial communities in dark oligotrophic volcanic ice cave ecosystems of Mt. Erebus, Antarctica. |
title_sort |
microbial communities in dark oligotrophic volcanic ice cave ecosystems of mt. erebus, antarctica. |
publisher |
eScholarship, University of California |
publishDate |
2015 |
url |
https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2gr9z5d5 |
op_coverage |
179 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(165.100,165.100,-71.283,-71.283) |
geographic |
Calvin |
geographic_facet |
Calvin |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctica |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctica |
op_source |
Frontiers in microbiology, vol 6, iss MAR |
op_relation |
qt2gr9z5d5 https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2gr9z5d5 |
op_rights |
public |
_version_ |
1766256982246817792 |