Poorly known microbial taxa dominate the microbiome of permafrost thaw ponds

• Published in: The ISME Journal
• Main Authors: Wurzbacher, Christian, Nilsson, R Henrik, Rautio, Milla, Peura, Sari
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Nature Publishing Group 2017
• Subjects: Short Communication; Freed; permafrost
• Online Access: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5520041/; http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28430187; https://doi.org/10.1038/ismej.2017.54

In the transition zone of the shifting permafrost border, thaw ponds emerge as hotspots of microbial activity, processing the ancient carbon freed from the permafrost. We analyzed the microbial succession across a gradient of recently emerged to older ponds using three molecular markers: one universal, one bacterial and one fungal. Age was a major modulator of the microbial community of the thaw ponds. Surprisingly, typical freshwater taxa comprised only a small fraction of the community. Instead, thaw ponds of all age classes were dominated by enigmatic bacterial and fungal phyla. Our results on permafrost thaw ponds lead to a revised perception of the thaw pond ecosystem and their microbes, with potential implications for carbon and nutrient cycling in this increasingly important class of freshwaters.