Carbon Pathways Through the Food Web of a Microbial Mat From Byers Peninsula, Antarctica
Microbial mats are complex communities that represent a large biomass fraction in non-marine Antarctic ecosystems. They confer structure to soils and constitute, by themselves, intricate microecosystems, where a great variety of microorganisms and microfauna contributes to the ecosystem functions. A...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:33f92785c8b5467d95d343674db0aea0 2023-05-15T13:49:31+02:00 Carbon Pathways Through the Food Web of a Microbial Mat From Byers Peninsula, Antarctica Pablo Almela David Velázquez Eugenio Rico Ana Justel Antonio Quesada 2019-03-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2019.00628 https://doaj.org/article/33f92785c8b5467d95d343674db0aea0 EN eng Frontiers Media S.A. https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fmicb.2019.00628/full https://doaj.org/toc/1664-302X 1664-302X doi:10.3389/fmicb.2019.00628 https://doaj.org/article/33f92785c8b5467d95d343674db0aea0 Frontiers in Microbiology, Vol 10 (2019) microbial mats Antarctica cyanobacteria trophic web carbon pathways stable isotopes Microbiology QR1-502 article 2019 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2019.00628 2022-12-31T11:42:36Z Microbial mats are complex communities that represent a large biomass fraction in non-marine Antarctic ecosystems. They confer structure to soils and constitute, by themselves, intricate microecosystems, where a great variety of microorganisms and microfauna contributes to the ecosystem functions. Although in recent years Antarctic microbial mats have been thoroughly investigated, trophic relationships within the communities remain unresolved. We therefore conducted a study of the trophic relationships of a microbial mat from Byers Peninsula, Antarctica, using DNA analysis and stable isotopes as trophic tracers. Our results suggested, based on a Bayesian mixing model, that at least four trophic levels are present within this microecosystem: primary producers (cyanobacteria and diatoms), primary consumers (rotifers and tardigrades), secondary consumers (nematodes) and decomposers (fungi). Nematodes would play a key role as top consumers of the community, connecting the two carbon inputs described into the system, as omnivores at the secondary trophic level. In addition, carbon pathways from primary trophic level to consumers take place quickly during the first 24 h after its incorporation in the primary producers, dispersing across all the trophic levels and reaching secondary consumers in less than 11 days. This suggests that, given the changing physical conditions and presumably short periods of activity, there is a fine temporal coupling among the organisms in the community, minimizing the redundancy in function performance among trophic levels. Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Antarctic Byers ENVELOPE(-60.283,-60.283,-63.900,-63.900) Byers peninsula ENVELOPE(-61.066,-61.066,-62.633,-62.633) Frontiers in Microbiology 10 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
microbial mats Antarctica cyanobacteria trophic web carbon pathways stable isotopes Microbiology QR1-502 |
spellingShingle |
microbial mats Antarctica cyanobacteria trophic web carbon pathways stable isotopes Microbiology QR1-502 Pablo Almela David Velázquez Eugenio Rico Ana Justel Antonio Quesada Carbon Pathways Through the Food Web of a Microbial Mat From Byers Peninsula, Antarctica |
topic_facet |
microbial mats Antarctica cyanobacteria trophic web carbon pathways stable isotopes Microbiology QR1-502 |
description |
Microbial mats are complex communities that represent a large biomass fraction in non-marine Antarctic ecosystems. They confer structure to soils and constitute, by themselves, intricate microecosystems, where a great variety of microorganisms and microfauna contributes to the ecosystem functions. Although in recent years Antarctic microbial mats have been thoroughly investigated, trophic relationships within the communities remain unresolved. We therefore conducted a study of the trophic relationships of a microbial mat from Byers Peninsula, Antarctica, using DNA analysis and stable isotopes as trophic tracers. Our results suggested, based on a Bayesian mixing model, that at least four trophic levels are present within this microecosystem: primary producers (cyanobacteria and diatoms), primary consumers (rotifers and tardigrades), secondary consumers (nematodes) and decomposers (fungi). Nematodes would play a key role as top consumers of the community, connecting the two carbon inputs described into the system, as omnivores at the secondary trophic level. In addition, carbon pathways from primary trophic level to consumers take place quickly during the first 24 h after its incorporation in the primary producers, dispersing across all the trophic levels and reaching secondary consumers in less than 11 days. This suggests that, given the changing physical conditions and presumably short periods of activity, there is a fine temporal coupling among the organisms in the community, minimizing the redundancy in function performance among trophic levels. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Pablo Almela David Velázquez Eugenio Rico Ana Justel Antonio Quesada |
author_facet |
Pablo Almela David Velázquez Eugenio Rico Ana Justel Antonio Quesada |
author_sort |
Pablo Almela |
title |
Carbon Pathways Through the Food Web of a Microbial Mat From Byers Peninsula, Antarctica |
title_short |
Carbon Pathways Through the Food Web of a Microbial Mat From Byers Peninsula, Antarctica |
title_full |
Carbon Pathways Through the Food Web of a Microbial Mat From Byers Peninsula, Antarctica |
title_fullStr |
Carbon Pathways Through the Food Web of a Microbial Mat From Byers Peninsula, Antarctica |
title_full_unstemmed |
Carbon Pathways Through the Food Web of a Microbial Mat From Byers Peninsula, Antarctica |
title_sort |
carbon pathways through the food web of a microbial mat from byers peninsula, antarctica |
publisher |
Frontiers Media S.A. |
publishDate |
2019 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2019.00628 https://doaj.org/article/33f92785c8b5467d95d343674db0aea0 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-60.283,-60.283,-63.900,-63.900) ENVELOPE(-61.066,-61.066,-62.633,-62.633) |
geographic |
Antarctic Byers Byers peninsula |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic Byers Byers peninsula |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica |
op_source |
Frontiers in Microbiology, Vol 10 (2019) |
op_relation |
https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fmicb.2019.00628/full https://doaj.org/toc/1664-302X 1664-302X doi:10.3389/fmicb.2019.00628 https://doaj.org/article/33f92785c8b5467d95d343674db0aea0 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2019.00628 |
container_title |
Frontiers in Microbiology |
container_volume |
10 |
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1766251465791242240 |