| Summary: | Soils in some regions of the Arctic may have three layers, which are from top to bottom the soil surface, active layer, and permafrost. The active layer thaws during the summer and freezes during the winter, while the permafrost remains frozen continuously through the seasons. Because of climate change, the active layer is becoming deeper and may not refreeze during the winter, and permafrost thaw is increasing. In both the soil surface and the active layer there is an active flow of compounds. Hydrocarbon contamination can occur in the Arctic due to fuel spills, and as a result of the increasing temperatures they can be transported within the active layer and down to the permafrost. Since there are some microbial communities that are able to degrade these compounds, there might be some variations in microbial communities in contaminated soils in comparison with the communities from the non-polluted soils. The objective of this research is to determine the differences between microbial communities present in non-contaminated and contaminated Arctic soils, to better understand the biodegradation potential of these communities. In order to do so, DNA will be extracted from the soils and community 16S rRNA gene sequencing will be completed to allow a comparison between bacterial species found in different communities. As a consequence of climate change some contaminants could arrive to bodies of water such as rivers and lakes, however, some of these communities could run bioremediation reactions, so a future prediction of the process will be exposed in this research.
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