Diatoms in cryoconite holes and adjacent proglacial freshwater sediments, Nordenskiöld glacier (Spitsbergen, High Arctic)

In the present study, we characterize the diatom communities of Nordenskiöld glacier cryoconite holes in Billefjorden (Svalbard, Spitsbergen), and multivariate approaches were used to compare them with three freshwater localities in the immediate vicinity to investigate possible sources of the speci...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Czech Polar Reports
Main Authors: Vinšová, P., Pinseel, E., Kohler, T. J., Van de Vijver, B., Žárský, J.D., Kavan, J., Kopalová, K. (Kateřina)
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: 2015
Subjects:
ecology
lakes
Svalbard
Arctic
Billefjorden
glacier
Spitsbergen
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.5817/CPR2015-2-11
http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0268873
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Summary:In the present study, we characterize the diatom communities of Nordenskiöld glacier cryoconite holes in Billefjorden (Svalbard, Spitsbergen), and multivariate approaches were used to compare them with three freshwater localities in the immediate vicinity to investigate possible sources of the species pool. We found cryoconite holes to have similar or greater average genus-richness than adjacent lake/ ponds habitats, even though lower numbers of valves were recovered. Overall, cryoconite hole diatom communities differed significantly from those observed in lakes, suggesting that other sources actively contribute to these communities than nearby lakes alone. This further suggests that (i) diatoms present in cryoconite might not exclusively originate from aquatic habitats, but also from (semi-) terrestrial ones; and (ii) that a much wider area than the immediate surroundings should be considered as a possible source for cryoconite diatom flora.

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