Cyanobacterial community composition in Arctic soil crusts at different stages of development

• Published in: FEMS Microbiology Ecology
• Main Authors: Pushkareva, Ekaterina, Stelmach Pessi, Igor, Wilmotte, Annick, Elster, Josef
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Blackwell Publishing 2015
• Subjects: Life sciences; Environmental sciences & ecology; Sciences du vivant; Sciences de l’environnement & écologie; Svalbard
• Online Access: https://orbi.uliege.be/handle/2268/189250; https://orbi.uliege.be/bitstream/2268/189250/1/Pushkareva%20et%20al.%2c%202015%2c%20FEMS%20Microbiology%20Ecology.pdf; https://doi.org/10.1093/femsec/fiv143

peer reviewed Cyanobacterial diversity in soil crusts has been extensively studied in arid lands of temperate regions, particularly semi-arid steppes and warm deserts. Nevertheless, Arctic soil crusts have received far less attention than their temperate counterparts. Here we describe the cyanobacterial communities from various types of soil crusts from Svalbard, High Arctic. Four soil crusts at different development stages (ranging from poorly-developed to well-developed soil crusts) were analysed using 454 pyrosequencing of the V3-V4 variable region of the cyanobacterial 16S rRNA gene. Analyses of 95660 cyanobacterial sequences revealed a dominance of OTUs belonging to the orders Synechococcales, Oscillatoriales, and Nostocales. The most dominant OTUs in the four studied sites were related to the filamentous cyanobacteria Leptolyngbya sp. Phylotype richness estimates increased from poorly- to mid-developed soil crusts and decreased in the well-developed lichenized soil crust. Moreover, pH, ammonium and organic carbon concentrations appeared significantly correlated with the cyanobacterial community structure.