Snow algae communities in Antarctica: metabolic and taxonomic composition. ...

• Main Authors: Davey, Matthew P, Norman, Louisa, Sterk, Peter, Huete-Ortega, Maria, Bunbury, Freddy, Loh, Bradford Kin Wai, Stockton, Sian, Peck, Lloyd S, Convey, Peter, Newsham, Kevin K, Smith, Alison G
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 2019
• Subjects: Antarctica; bacteria; community composition; cryophilic; fungi; metabarcoding; metabolomics; snow algae; Antarctic Regions; Biomass; Cell Count; Eukaryota; Eutrophication; Lipids; Metabolomics; Pigments, Biological; Principal Component Analysis; Snow; Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared; Antarctic; Antarctic Peninsula; Austral; Adelaide Island; Ryder; Ryder Bay; Antarc*
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.17863/cam.36064; https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/288801

Snow algae are found in snowfields across cold regions of the planet, forming highly visible red and green patches below and on the snow surface. In Antarctica, they contribute significantly to terrestrial net primary productivity due to the paucity of land plants, but our knowledge of these communities is limited. Here we provide the first description of the metabolic and species diversity of green and red snow algae communities from four locations in Ryder Bay (Adelaide Island, 68°S), Antarctic Peninsula. During the 2015 austral summer season, we collected samples to measure the metabolic composition of snow algae communities and determined the species composition of these communities using metabarcoding. Green communities were protein-rich, had a high chlorophyll content and contained many metabolites associated with nitrogen and amino acid metabolism. Red communities had a higher carotenoid content and contained more metabolites associated with carbohydrate and fatty acid metabolism. Chloromonas, ...