The diversity of ice algal communities on the Greenland Ice Sheet as revealed by oligotyping
The Arctic is being disproportionally affected by climate change compared with other geographic locations, and is currently experiencing unprecedented melt rates. The Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) can be regarded as the largest supraglacial ecosystem on Earth, and ice algae are the dominant primary pro...
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ftleedsuniv:oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:128795 2023-05-15T13:11:54+02:00 The diversity of ice algal communities on the Greenland Ice Sheet as revealed by oligotyping Lutz, S McCutcheon, J McQuaid, JB Benning, LG 2018-03-16 text https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/128795/ https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/128795/1/Lutz%20et%20al%202018%20-%20The%20diversity%20of%20ice%20algae%20on%20the%20Greenland%20Ice%20Sheet%20as%20revealed%20by%20oligotyping.pdf en eng Microbiology Society https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/128795/1/Lutz%20et%20al%202018%20-%20The%20diversity%20of%20ice%20algae%20on%20the%20Greenland%20Ice%20Sheet%20as%20revealed%20by%20oligotyping.pdf Lutz, S, McCutcheon, J orcid.org/0000-0002-9114-7408 , McQuaid, JB et al. (1 more author) (2018) The diversity of ice algal communities on the Greenland Ice Sheet as revealed by oligotyping. Microbial Genomics, 4. 159. ISSN 2057-5858 cc_by_4 CC-BY Article NonPeerReviewed 2018 ftleedsuniv 2023-01-30T22:04:55Z The Arctic is being disproportionally affected by climate change compared with other geographic locations, and is currently experiencing unprecedented melt rates. The Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) can be regarded as the largest supraglacial ecosystem on Earth, and ice algae are the dominant primary producers on bare ice surfaces throughout the course of a melt season. Ice-algal-derived pigments cause a darkening of the ice surface, which in turn decreases albedo and increases melt rates. The important role of ice algae in changing melt rates has only recently been recognized, and we currently know little about their community compositions and functions. Here, we present the first analysis of ice algal communities across a 100 km transect on the GrIS by high-throughput sequencing and subsequent oligotyping of the most abundant taxa. Our data reveal an extremely low algal diversity with Ancylonema nordenskiƶldii and a Mesotaenium species being by far the dominant taxa at all sites. We employed an oligotyping approach and revealed a hidden diversity not detectable by conventional clustering of operational taxonomic units and taxonomic classification. Oligotypes of the dominant taxa exhibit a site-specific distribution, which may be linked to differences in temperatures and subsequently the extent of the melting. Our results help to better understand the distribution patterns of ice algal communities that play a crucial role in the GrIS ecosystem. Article in Journal/Newspaper albedo Arctic Climate change Greenland ice algae Ice Sheet White Rose Research Online (Universities of Leeds, Sheffield & York) Arctic Greenland |
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Open Polar |
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White Rose Research Online (Universities of Leeds, Sheffield & York) |
op_collection_id |
ftleedsuniv |
language |
English |
description |
The Arctic is being disproportionally affected by climate change compared with other geographic locations, and is currently experiencing unprecedented melt rates. The Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) can be regarded as the largest supraglacial ecosystem on Earth, and ice algae are the dominant primary producers on bare ice surfaces throughout the course of a melt season. Ice-algal-derived pigments cause a darkening of the ice surface, which in turn decreases albedo and increases melt rates. The important role of ice algae in changing melt rates has only recently been recognized, and we currently know little about their community compositions and functions. Here, we present the first analysis of ice algal communities across a 100 km transect on the GrIS by high-throughput sequencing and subsequent oligotyping of the most abundant taxa. Our data reveal an extremely low algal diversity with Ancylonema nordenskiƶldii and a Mesotaenium species being by far the dominant taxa at all sites. We employed an oligotyping approach and revealed a hidden diversity not detectable by conventional clustering of operational taxonomic units and taxonomic classification. Oligotypes of the dominant taxa exhibit a site-specific distribution, which may be linked to differences in temperatures and subsequently the extent of the melting. Our results help to better understand the distribution patterns of ice algal communities that play a crucial role in the GrIS ecosystem. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Lutz, S McCutcheon, J McQuaid, JB Benning, LG |
spellingShingle |
Lutz, S McCutcheon, J McQuaid, JB Benning, LG The diversity of ice algal communities on the Greenland Ice Sheet as revealed by oligotyping |
author_facet |
Lutz, S McCutcheon, J McQuaid, JB Benning, LG |
author_sort |
Lutz, S |
title |
The diversity of ice algal communities on the Greenland Ice Sheet as revealed by oligotyping |
title_short |
The diversity of ice algal communities on the Greenland Ice Sheet as revealed by oligotyping |
title_full |
The diversity of ice algal communities on the Greenland Ice Sheet as revealed by oligotyping |
title_fullStr |
The diversity of ice algal communities on the Greenland Ice Sheet as revealed by oligotyping |
title_full_unstemmed |
The diversity of ice algal communities on the Greenland Ice Sheet as revealed by oligotyping |
title_sort |
diversity of ice algal communities on the greenland ice sheet as revealed by oligotyping |
publisher |
Microbiology Society |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/128795/ https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/128795/1/Lutz%20et%20al%202018%20-%20The%20diversity%20of%20ice%20algae%20on%20the%20Greenland%20Ice%20Sheet%20as%20revealed%20by%20oligotyping.pdf |
geographic |
Arctic Greenland |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Greenland |
genre |
albedo Arctic Climate change Greenland ice algae Ice Sheet |
genre_facet |
albedo Arctic Climate change Greenland ice algae Ice Sheet |
op_relation |
https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/128795/1/Lutz%20et%20al%202018%20-%20The%20diversity%20of%20ice%20algae%20on%20the%20Greenland%20Ice%20Sheet%20as%20revealed%20by%20oligotyping.pdf Lutz, S, McCutcheon, J orcid.org/0000-0002-9114-7408 , McQuaid, JB et al. (1 more author) (2018) The diversity of ice algal communities on the Greenland Ice Sheet as revealed by oligotyping. Microbial Genomics, 4. 159. ISSN 2057-5858 |
op_rights |
cc_by_4 |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
_version_ |
1766249431965892608 |