Diversity and abundance of microbial eukaryotes in stream sediments from Svalbard ...

• Main Authors: Hindshaw, RS, Lindsay, MR, Boyd, ES
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Springer 2017
• Subjects: eukarya; Svalbard; sediment; glacier; chemotrophy; permafrost
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.17863/cam.9941; https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/264465

Microbial eukaryotes are increasingly being recognised for their role in global biogeochemical cycles, yet very few studies have focussed on their distribution in high-latitude stream sediments, an important habitat which influences stream water nutrient chemistry. In this study, we present the first comparison of microbial eukaryotes from two different polar habitats by determining the abundance and taxonomic affiliation of 18S rRNA gene fragments recovered from four sediment samples in Svalbard: two from a glaciated catchment and two from an unglaciated permafrost-dominated catchment. Whilst there was no difference between the two catchments in terms of Rao’s phylogenetic diversity (0.18±0.04, 1SD), the glaciated catchment samples had slightly higher richness (138–139) than the unglaciated catchment samples (67–106). At the phylum level, Ciliophora had the highest relative abundance in the samples from the glaciated catchment (32–63%), but only comprised 0–17% of the unglaciated catchment samples. ...