Fungal Diversity in a Dark Oligotrophic Volcanic Ecosystem (DOVE) on Mount Erebus, Antarctica
Fumarolic Ice caves on Antarctica’s Mt. Erebus contain a dark oligotrophic volcanic ecosystem (DOVE) and represent a deep biosphere habitat that can provide insight into microbial communities that utilize energy sources other than photosynthesis. The community assembly and role of fungi in these env...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:238a920690be4d89a8aa30fbaba9ad44 2023-10-09T21:47:05+02:00 Fungal Diversity in a Dark Oligotrophic Volcanic Ecosystem (DOVE) on Mount Erebus, Antarctica Hubert Staudigel Laurie Connell 2013-05-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.3390/biology2020798 https://doaj.org/article/238a920690be4d89a8aa30fbaba9ad44 EN eng MDPI AG http://www.mdpi.com/2079-7737/2/2/798 https://doaj.org/toc/2079-7737 doi:10.3390/biology2020798 2079-7737 https://doaj.org/article/238a920690be4d89a8aa30fbaba9ad44 Biology, Vol 2, Iss 2, Pp 798-809 (2013) Antarctica fungal community volcano Mt. Erebus Biology (General) QH301-705.5 article 2013 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.3390/biology2020798 2023-09-10T00:45:17Z Fumarolic Ice caves on Antarctica’s Mt. Erebus contain a dark oligotrophic volcanic ecosystem (DOVE) and represent a deep biosphere habitat that can provide insight into microbial communities that utilize energy sources other than photosynthesis. The community assembly and role of fungi in these environments remains largely unknown. However, these habitats could be relatively easily contaminated during human visits. Sixty-one species of fungi were identified from soil clone libraries originating from Warren Cave, a DOVE on Mt. Erebus. The species diversity was greater than has been found in the nearby McMurdo Dry Valleys oligotrophic soil. A relatively large proportion of the clones represented Malassezia species (37% of Basidomycota identified). These fungi are associated with skin surfaces of animals and require high lipid content for growth, indicating that contamination may have occurred through the few and episodic human visits in this particular cave. These findings highlight the importance of fungi to DOVE environments as well as their potential use for identifying contamination by humans. The latter offers compelling evidence suggesting more strict management of these valuable research areas. Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctica McMurdo Dry Valleys Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles McMurdo Dry Valleys Mount Erebus ENVELOPE(167.167,167.167,-77.533,-77.533) Biology 2 2 798 809 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
Antarctica fungal community volcano Mt. Erebus Biology (General) QH301-705.5 |
spellingShingle |
Antarctica fungal community volcano Mt. Erebus Biology (General) QH301-705.5 Hubert Staudigel Laurie Connell Fungal Diversity in a Dark Oligotrophic Volcanic Ecosystem (DOVE) on Mount Erebus, Antarctica |
topic_facet |
Antarctica fungal community volcano Mt. Erebus Biology (General) QH301-705.5 |
description |
Fumarolic Ice caves on Antarctica’s Mt. Erebus contain a dark oligotrophic volcanic ecosystem (DOVE) and represent a deep biosphere habitat that can provide insight into microbial communities that utilize energy sources other than photosynthesis. The community assembly and role of fungi in these environments remains largely unknown. However, these habitats could be relatively easily contaminated during human visits. Sixty-one species of fungi were identified from soil clone libraries originating from Warren Cave, a DOVE on Mt. Erebus. The species diversity was greater than has been found in the nearby McMurdo Dry Valleys oligotrophic soil. A relatively large proportion of the clones represented Malassezia species (37% of Basidomycota identified). These fungi are associated with skin surfaces of animals and require high lipid content for growth, indicating that contamination may have occurred through the few and episodic human visits in this particular cave. These findings highlight the importance of fungi to DOVE environments as well as their potential use for identifying contamination by humans. The latter offers compelling evidence suggesting more strict management of these valuable research areas. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Hubert Staudigel Laurie Connell |
author_facet |
Hubert Staudigel Laurie Connell |
author_sort |
Hubert Staudigel |
title |
Fungal Diversity in a Dark Oligotrophic Volcanic Ecosystem (DOVE) on Mount Erebus, Antarctica |
title_short |
Fungal Diversity in a Dark Oligotrophic Volcanic Ecosystem (DOVE) on Mount Erebus, Antarctica |
title_full |
Fungal Diversity in a Dark Oligotrophic Volcanic Ecosystem (DOVE) on Mount Erebus, Antarctica |
title_fullStr |
Fungal Diversity in a Dark Oligotrophic Volcanic Ecosystem (DOVE) on Mount Erebus, Antarctica |
title_full_unstemmed |
Fungal Diversity in a Dark Oligotrophic Volcanic Ecosystem (DOVE) on Mount Erebus, Antarctica |
title_sort |
fungal diversity in a dark oligotrophic volcanic ecosystem (dove) on mount erebus, antarctica |
publisher |
MDPI AG |
publishDate |
2013 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.3390/biology2020798 https://doaj.org/article/238a920690be4d89a8aa30fbaba9ad44 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(167.167,167.167,-77.533,-77.533) |
geographic |
McMurdo Dry Valleys Mount Erebus |
geographic_facet |
McMurdo Dry Valleys Mount Erebus |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctica McMurdo Dry Valleys |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctica McMurdo Dry Valleys |
op_source |
Biology, Vol 2, Iss 2, Pp 798-809 (2013) |
op_relation |
http://www.mdpi.com/2079-7737/2/2/798 https://doaj.org/toc/2079-7737 doi:10.3390/biology2020798 2079-7737 https://doaj.org/article/238a920690be4d89a8aa30fbaba9ad44 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3390/biology2020798 |
container_title |
Biology |
container_volume |
2 |
container_issue |
2 |
container_start_page |
798 |
op_container_end_page |
809 |
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1779309818197049344 |