Microbial activity monitoring by the Integrated Arctic Earth Observing System (MamSIOS)

• Main Authors: Malard, Lucie, Avilla-Jimenez, M, Convey, Peter, Larose, Catherine, Hodson, Andrew, Øvreås, Lise, Schmale, J, Anwar, Muhammad Zohaib, Pearce, David
• Other Authors: Orr, Elizabeth, Hansen, Georg, Lappalainen, Hanna, Hübner, Christiane, Lihavainen, Heikki
• Format: Book Part
• Language: English
• Published: The State of Environmental Science in Svalbard – an annual report 2019
• Subjects: Arctic; Harding
• Online Access: https://pure.au.dk/portal/da/publications/microbial-activity-monitoring-by-the-integrated-arctic-earth-observing-system-mamsios(0e6cf6ea-8760-4f49-94f9-e52a6e359d64).html; https://www.sios-svalbard.org/sites/sios-svalbard.org/files/common/SESSreport_2018_FullReport.pdf

Microorganisms, though already integral elements, are likely to play an increasingly import- ant role in the Earth’s climate system (Falkowski et al., 2008) and are known to affect polar biogeochemical cycles (Larose et al., 2013a). In particular, they play important roles in the generation and decomposition of climate active gases. However, current climate models do not take into account the response of microbial activity and their influence in biochemical cycles (Incorporating microbial processes into climate models, ASM report). To improve the predictive ability of climate models, it is important to understand the mechanisms by which microorganisms regulate terrestrial greenhouse gas flux and to determine whether changes in microbial processes will lead to net positive or negative feedbacks on greenhouse gas emissions (Singh et al., 2010). This contribution has been particularly overlooked for the polar regions (Figure 1), where the environment has traditionally been considered too harsh for significant microbial activity to occur. It has long been considered that any life, if present at all, was either dormant or functioning sub-optimally, as living organisms have to be well adapted or highly resistant to extreme cold and desiccation, low nutrient availability and seasonally variable UV radiation levels in order to survive (Harding et al., 2011; Cameron et al., 2012; Goordial et al., 2013; Larose et al., 2013a). However, it is now clear that microbial presence is ubiquitous across the polar regions, and recent research into the polar aerobiome points toward a potentially dynamic polar microbial community and with it, the possibility of significant microbial activity within the snowpack (Redeker et al., 2017), even in the most remote locations (Pearce et al., 2009). Research into the aerobiome has also demonstrated that microorganisms in aerial fallout may remain both viable and active (Sattler et al., 2001; Harding et al., 2011). Furthermore, the presence of microbes in remote, low nutrient, low water, very ...