Human impacts on Antarctic ecosystems: do not forget the microorganisms!
The tiny and microscopic creatures that are the permanent inhabitants of the Antarctic continent are often overlooked in environmental impact assessments and when new management and protection strategies are designed. This lack of consideration is probably due to their small size and the need of sop...
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ftorbi:oai:orbi.ulg.ac.be:2268/153886 2024-04-21T07:51:56+00:00 Human impacts on Antarctic ecosystems: do not forget the microorganisms! Hughes, Kevin Verleyen, Elie Vyverman, Wim Obbels, Dagmar Willems, Anne Stelmach Pessi, Igor Laughinghouse IV, Haywood Wilmotte, Annick CIP - Centre d'Ingénierie des Protéines - ULiège 2013-07 1 https://orbi.uliege.be/handle/2268/153886 https://orbi.uliege.be/bitstream/2268/153886/1/Human%20impacts%20on%20Antarctic%20ecosystemsfinal-1.doc en eng https://orbi.uliege.be/handle/2268/153886 info:hdl:2268/153886 https://orbi.uliege.be/bitstream/2268/153886/1/Human%20impacts%20on%20Antarctic%20ecosystemsfinal-1.doc open access http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess 11th SCAR Biology Symposium, Barcelona, Spain [ES], 15-19 juillet 2013 microbial diversity conservation Antarctica Life sciences Microbiology Environmental sciences & ecology Sciences du vivant Microbiologie Sciences de l’environnement & écologie conference paper not in proceedings http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_18cp info:eu-repo/semantics/conferencePaper 2013 ftorbi 2024-03-27T14:45:16Z The tiny and microscopic creatures that are the permanent inhabitants of the Antarctic continent are often overlooked in environmental impact assessments and when new management and protection strategies are designed. This lack of consideration is probably due to their small size and the need of sophisticated molecular methods to study their diversity, evolution and geographic distribution. However, considerable progress has been made in the field of molecular diversity in the last two decennia, and is still ongoing for Antarctic bacteria, cyanobacteria, protists, fungi, etc. Recent studies have shown the presence of highly diverse microbial communities and the existence of species endemic to Antarctic in some taxonomic groups. With the emergence of High Throughput Sequencing methodologies that are able to detect ‘rare’ taxa, it becomes crucial to find Antarctic locations that have not yet been impacted by human presence. These ‘pristine’ areas are essential to serve as reference sites and allow to distinguish the true Antarctic organisms from the imported ones. Indeed, recent studies have shown that humans unintentionally disperse their own microbial flora but may also spread organisms from other locations. In the extreme biotopes with a reduced diversity that are currently found in Antarctica, such contaminations might have a profound impact. It is important to raise the awareness of scientists, environmental managers and policy makers about the necessity to single out some areas that are kept untouched, or where stringent biosecurity measures are taken. The purpose is not to hinder scientific research, but to weigh carefully, when exploring a new area, the importance of the acquired piece of knowledge in relation to the possibility of hindering future microbiological research. Some parallels with other fields of research are interesting to consider. Archeologists are used to keeping some parts of the explored caves untouched because they foresee that technological progress will allow better analyses in ... Conference Object Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica University of Liège: ORBi (Open Repository and Bibliography) |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
University of Liège: ORBi (Open Repository and Bibliography) |
op_collection_id |
ftorbi |
language |
English |
topic |
microbial diversity conservation Antarctica Life sciences Microbiology Environmental sciences & ecology Sciences du vivant Microbiologie Sciences de l’environnement & écologie |
spellingShingle |
microbial diversity conservation Antarctica Life sciences Microbiology Environmental sciences & ecology Sciences du vivant Microbiologie Sciences de l’environnement & écologie Hughes, Kevin Verleyen, Elie Vyverman, Wim Obbels, Dagmar Willems, Anne Stelmach Pessi, Igor Laughinghouse IV, Haywood Wilmotte, Annick Human impacts on Antarctic ecosystems: do not forget the microorganisms! |
topic_facet |
microbial diversity conservation Antarctica Life sciences Microbiology Environmental sciences & ecology Sciences du vivant Microbiologie Sciences de l’environnement & écologie |
description |
The tiny and microscopic creatures that are the permanent inhabitants of the Antarctic continent are often overlooked in environmental impact assessments and when new management and protection strategies are designed. This lack of consideration is probably due to their small size and the need of sophisticated molecular methods to study their diversity, evolution and geographic distribution. However, considerable progress has been made in the field of molecular diversity in the last two decennia, and is still ongoing for Antarctic bacteria, cyanobacteria, protists, fungi, etc. Recent studies have shown the presence of highly diverse microbial communities and the existence of species endemic to Antarctic in some taxonomic groups. With the emergence of High Throughput Sequencing methodologies that are able to detect ‘rare’ taxa, it becomes crucial to find Antarctic locations that have not yet been impacted by human presence. These ‘pristine’ areas are essential to serve as reference sites and allow to distinguish the true Antarctic organisms from the imported ones. Indeed, recent studies have shown that humans unintentionally disperse their own microbial flora but may also spread organisms from other locations. In the extreme biotopes with a reduced diversity that are currently found in Antarctica, such contaminations might have a profound impact. It is important to raise the awareness of scientists, environmental managers and policy makers about the necessity to single out some areas that are kept untouched, or where stringent biosecurity measures are taken. The purpose is not to hinder scientific research, but to weigh carefully, when exploring a new area, the importance of the acquired piece of knowledge in relation to the possibility of hindering future microbiological research. Some parallels with other fields of research are interesting to consider. Archeologists are used to keeping some parts of the explored caves untouched because they foresee that technological progress will allow better analyses in ... |
author2 |
CIP - Centre d'Ingénierie des Protéines - ULiège |
format |
Conference Object |
author |
Hughes, Kevin Verleyen, Elie Vyverman, Wim Obbels, Dagmar Willems, Anne Stelmach Pessi, Igor Laughinghouse IV, Haywood Wilmotte, Annick |
author_facet |
Hughes, Kevin Verleyen, Elie Vyverman, Wim Obbels, Dagmar Willems, Anne Stelmach Pessi, Igor Laughinghouse IV, Haywood Wilmotte, Annick |
author_sort |
Hughes, Kevin |
title |
Human impacts on Antarctic ecosystems: do not forget the microorganisms! |
title_short |
Human impacts on Antarctic ecosystems: do not forget the microorganisms! |
title_full |
Human impacts on Antarctic ecosystems: do not forget the microorganisms! |
title_fullStr |
Human impacts on Antarctic ecosystems: do not forget the microorganisms! |
title_full_unstemmed |
Human impacts on Antarctic ecosystems: do not forget the microorganisms! |
title_sort |
human impacts on antarctic ecosystems: do not forget the microorganisms! |
publishDate |
2013 |
url |
https://orbi.uliege.be/handle/2268/153886 https://orbi.uliege.be/bitstream/2268/153886/1/Human%20impacts%20on%20Antarctic%20ecosystemsfinal-1.doc |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica |
op_source |
11th SCAR Biology Symposium, Barcelona, Spain [ES], 15-19 juillet 2013 |
op_relation |
https://orbi.uliege.be/handle/2268/153886 info:hdl:2268/153886 https://orbi.uliege.be/bitstream/2268/153886/1/Human%20impacts%20on%20Antarctic%20ecosystemsfinal-1.doc |
op_rights |
open access http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
_version_ |
1796935219115196416 |