Scientific note

• Main Authors: Josef Elster, Josef Svoboda, Shuji Ohtani, Hiroshi K
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Antarctic; Arctic; The Antarctic; Antarc*; Climate change; Ice; permafrost
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.625.5202; http://polaris.nipr.ac.jp/~penguin/polarbiosci/issues/pdf/2002-Elster.pdf

Abstract: Cyanobacteria and algal communities are essential in the process of initial primary succession following landscape deglaciation. Near the glacial front, a shallow wetland zone is maintained by melting ice. Here, algal mats and crusts quickly develop. The ground in all of these wet habitats is cold due to the close presence of the glacial front and permafrost. Cyanobacteria and algal populations which survive and expand in such extreme cold and unstable environments display special ecological and physiological acclimatization-adaptation characteristics, which enable them to succeed during the initial colonization phase. In this text, it is proposed to use these young microbial ecosystems as feasibility studies for developing the necessary methodology to assess the algal response to climate change. Cyanobacteria and algal communities are the most appropriate model microorganisms for such study because of their global universality, environmental sensitivity, fast reproductive potential and relatively easy experimental manipulation. We propose the microbial studies on three different mutually complementary levels: Study of diversity, structure and life strategies of Cyanobacteria and algae participating in the initiation of primary succession.- Study of primary production, nitrogen fixation and nutrient utilization in natural and nutritionally-manipulated experimental set-ups.- Study of physiological response of Cyanobacteria and algae to temperature change. The processes of primary succession have been widely studied by Japanese, as well as Czech, scientists in polar regions during recent times. In this paper, we review phycological studies which have been carried out in the Antarctic and the Arctic, and sounded on feasibility studies in this field. key words: Cyanobacteria, algae, primary succession, primary production