Minimal influence of water and nutrient content on the bacterial community composition of a maritime Antarctic soil

• Published in: Microbiological Research
• Main Authors: Newsham, Kevin K., Pearce, David A., Bridge, Paul D.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: Elsevier 2010
• Subjects: Agriculture and Soil Science; Biology and Microbiology; Ecology and Environment; Alexander Island; Antarctic; Antarctic Peninsula; Mars Oasis; Antarc*
• Online Access: http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/12537/

Bacterial community composition was determined by culture-independent PCR-based methods in two soils differing markedly in their water, C, N and P contents sampled from Mars Oasis on Alexander Island, western Antarctic Peninsula. 16S rRNA sequences of the phyla Actinobacteria, Cyanobacteria, alpha-Proteobacteria and Acidobacteria were commonly (>8% frequency) obtained from soil. Those of beta-, gamma- and delta-Proteobacteria, Chloroflexi, Bacteroidetes, Verrucomicrobia, Planctomycetes, Gemmatimonadetes and Firmicutes were less frequent. Comparisons of slopes of collector's curves and the Shannon-Weiner diversity index indicated no difference in overall bacterial diversity between the two soils, although sequences of delta-Proteobacteria and the cyanobacterial genus Leptolyngbya were more commonly derived from the soil with the higher water and nutrient content. The data suggest that different levels of soil water, C, N and P have only a minor effect on the bacterial community composition of maritime Antarctic soils.