Permafrost Meta-Omics and Climate Change

Permanently frozen soil, or permafrost, covers a large portion of the Earth's terrestrial surface and represents a unique environment for cold-adapted microorganisms. As permafrost thaws, previously protected organic matter becomes available for microbial degradation. Microbes that decompose so...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Published in:Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences
Main Authors: Mackelprang, Rachel, Saleska, Scott R., Jacobsen, Carsten Suhr, Jansson, Janet K., Taş, Neslihan
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: 2016
Subjects:
Online Access:https://pure.au.dk/portal/da/publications/permafrost-metaomics-and-climate-change(be61f1ef-978e-47be-8544-b99fee60bc6b).html
https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-earth-060614-105126
http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84977119859&partnerID=8YFLogxK
Description
Summary:Permanently frozen soil, or permafrost, covers a large portion of the Earth's terrestrial surface and represents a unique environment for cold-adapted microorganisms. As permafrost thaws, previously protected organic matter becomes available for microbial degradation. Microbes that decompose soil carbon produce carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, contributing substantially to climate change. Next-generation sequencing and other -omics technologies offer opportunities to discover the mechanisms by which microbial communities regulate the loss of carbon and the emission of greenhouse gases from thawing permafrost regions. Analysis of nucleic acids and proteins taken directly from permafrost-associated soils has provided new insights into microbial communities and their functions in Arctic environments that are increasingly impacted by climate change. In this article we review current information from various molecular -omics studies on permafrost microbial ecology and explore the relevance of these insights to our current understanding of the dynamics of permafrost loss due to climate change.