Sun exposure drives Antarctic cryptoendolithic community structure and composition
AbstractThe harsh environmental conditions of the ice-free regions of Continental Antarctica are considered one of the closest Martian analogues on Earth. There, rocks play a pivotal role as substratum for life and endolithism represents a primary habitat for microorganisms when external environment...
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ftcdlib:oai:escholarship.org:ark:/13030/qt0xt4n32r 2023-05-15T13:45:14+02:00 Sun exposure drives Antarctic cryptoendolithic community structure and composition Coleine, Claudia Stajich, Jason E Zucconi, Laura Onofri, Silvano Selbmann, Laura 2019-06-20 application/pdf https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0xt4n32r unknown eScholarship, University of California qt0xt4n32r https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0xt4n32r CC-BY-NC-ND CC-BY-NC-ND Climate Action article 2019 ftcdlib 2022-09-19T17:29:29Z AbstractThe harsh environmental conditions of the ice-free regions of Continental Antarctica are considered one of the closest Martian analogues on Earth. There, rocks play a pivotal role as substratum for life and endolithism represents a primary habitat for microorganisms when external environmental conditions become incompatible with active life on rock surfaces. Due to the thermal inertia of rock, the internal airspace of lithic substratum is where microbiota find a protected and buffered microenvironment, allowing life to spread throughout these regions with extreme temperatures and low water availability. The high degree of adaptation and specialization of the endolithic communities makes them highly resistant but scarsely resilient to any external perturbation and thus, any shifts in microbial community composition may serve as early-alarm systems of environmental perturbation, including climate change.Previous research concluded that altitude and distance from sea do not play as driving factors in shaping microbial abundance and diversity, while sun exposure was hypothesized as significant parameter influencing endolithic settlement and development. This study aims to explore our hypothesis that changes in sun exposure translate to shifts in community composition and abundances of main biological compartments (fungi, algae and bacteria) in the Antarctic cryptoendolithic communities. We performed a preliminary molecular survey, based on DGGE and qPCR tecniques, of 48 rocks with varying sun exposure, collected in Victoria Land along an altitudinal transect from 834 to 3100 m a.s.l.Our findings demonstrate that differences in sun radiation between north and south exposure influence temperature of rocks surface, availability of water and metabolic activity and also have significant impact on community composition and microbial abundance. Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica Victoria Land University of California: eScholarship Antarctic The Antarctic Victoria Land |
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University of California: eScholarship |
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Climate Action |
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Climate Action Coleine, Claudia Stajich, Jason E Zucconi, Laura Onofri, Silvano Selbmann, Laura Sun exposure drives Antarctic cryptoendolithic community structure and composition |
topic_facet |
Climate Action |
description |
AbstractThe harsh environmental conditions of the ice-free regions of Continental Antarctica are considered one of the closest Martian analogues on Earth. There, rocks play a pivotal role as substratum for life and endolithism represents a primary habitat for microorganisms when external environmental conditions become incompatible with active life on rock surfaces. Due to the thermal inertia of rock, the internal airspace of lithic substratum is where microbiota find a protected and buffered microenvironment, allowing life to spread throughout these regions with extreme temperatures and low water availability. The high degree of adaptation and specialization of the endolithic communities makes them highly resistant but scarsely resilient to any external perturbation and thus, any shifts in microbial community composition may serve as early-alarm systems of environmental perturbation, including climate change.Previous research concluded that altitude and distance from sea do not play as driving factors in shaping microbial abundance and diversity, while sun exposure was hypothesized as significant parameter influencing endolithic settlement and development. This study aims to explore our hypothesis that changes in sun exposure translate to shifts in community composition and abundances of main biological compartments (fungi, algae and bacteria) in the Antarctic cryptoendolithic communities. We performed a preliminary molecular survey, based on DGGE and qPCR tecniques, of 48 rocks with varying sun exposure, collected in Victoria Land along an altitudinal transect from 834 to 3100 m a.s.l.Our findings demonstrate that differences in sun radiation between north and south exposure influence temperature of rocks surface, availability of water and metabolic activity and also have significant impact on community composition and microbial abundance. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Coleine, Claudia Stajich, Jason E Zucconi, Laura Onofri, Silvano Selbmann, Laura |
author_facet |
Coleine, Claudia Stajich, Jason E Zucconi, Laura Onofri, Silvano Selbmann, Laura |
author_sort |
Coleine, Claudia |
title |
Sun exposure drives Antarctic cryptoendolithic community structure and composition |
title_short |
Sun exposure drives Antarctic cryptoendolithic community structure and composition |
title_full |
Sun exposure drives Antarctic cryptoendolithic community structure and composition |
title_fullStr |
Sun exposure drives Antarctic cryptoendolithic community structure and composition |
title_full_unstemmed |
Sun exposure drives Antarctic cryptoendolithic community structure and composition |
title_sort |
sun exposure drives antarctic cryptoendolithic community structure and composition |
publisher |
eScholarship, University of California |
publishDate |
2019 |
url |
https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0xt4n32r |
geographic |
Antarctic The Antarctic Victoria Land |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic The Antarctic Victoria Land |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica Victoria Land |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica Victoria Land |
op_relation |
qt0xt4n32r https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0xt4n32r |
op_rights |
CC-BY-NC-ND |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY-NC-ND |
_version_ |
1766217712988585984 |