Microbial ecology of hot and cold desert soils
Deserts are the most abundant terrestrial biome on Earth, and microbial processes assume a major role since environmental stress severely limits higher plant and animal life. A major hurdle to developing an understanding of microbial ecology in deserts has been the lack of knowledge at the fundament...
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The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong)
2013
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ftunivhongkonghu:oai:hub.hku.hk:10722/180946 2023-05-15T17:10:35+02:00 Microbial ecology of hot and cold desert soils Rao, Subramanya. 2013 https://doi.org/10.5353/th_b4961766 http://hdl.handle.net/10722/180946 eng eng The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong) HKU Theses Online (HKUTO) Rao, S. (2012). Microbial ecology of hot and cold desert soils. (Thesis). University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong SAR. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.5353/th_b4961766 doi:10.5353/th_b4961766 b4961766 http://hdl.handle.net/10722/180946 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. The author retains all proprietary rights, (such as patent rights) and the right to use in future works. CC-BY-NC-ND http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B49617667 Microbial ecology Deserts - Ecology PG_Thesis 2013 ftunivhongkonghu https://doi.org/10.5353/th_b4961766 2023-01-14T15:55:25Z Deserts are the most abundant terrestrial biome on Earth, and microbial processes assume a major role since environmental stress severely limits higher plant and animal life. A major hurdle to developing an understanding of microbial ecology in deserts has been the lack of knowledge at the fundamental biodiversity level. This is due to lack of research focus and also the inherent bias in ‘traditional’ microbial diversity estimates based upon cultivation. In this thesis an evaluation of culture-independent approaches employing both DNA and RNA from environmental samples was made with comparison to more traditional cultivation techniques. These were then applied to soils from hot and cold deserts, and along stress gradients from semi-arid to hyper-arid. A literature review was first conducted to assess the extent of current knowledge and identify critical knowledge gaps. The scientific study was then carried out as follows. The second chapter presents an evaluation of fungal taxa using cultivation, DNA and RNA based techniques. The findings indicated major taxa are revealed in all approaches, yet differences in less abundant taxa occur. The third chapter describes fungal assemblages in the soils of the McMurdo Dry Valleys, a cold polar desert. In this study, RNA based approaches tracked active fungal assemblages, whilst DNA and cultivation revealed additional taxa. Chapter four analyzed microbial communities in the Thar Desert, a hot monsoon desert in India. This study revealed a diverse community that comprised known desiccation-tolerant taxa but also a phylogenetically broad range of bacteria, archaea and eukarya. Chapter 5 focuses on the delineation of total versus active microorganisms in environmental samples from the hot deserts. As with the initial experiments, this revealed that total and active assemblages track each other broadly in desert soils. A synthesis of the study revealed that certain common microbial phyla are likely well-adapted to xeric stress, although distinct hot and cold desert assemblages ... Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis McMurdo Dry Valleys polar desert University of Hong Kong: HKU Scholars Hub McMurdo Dry Valleys |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
University of Hong Kong: HKU Scholars Hub |
op_collection_id |
ftunivhongkonghu |
language |
English |
topic |
Microbial ecology Deserts - Ecology |
spellingShingle |
Microbial ecology Deserts - Ecology Rao, Subramanya. Microbial ecology of hot and cold desert soils |
topic_facet |
Microbial ecology Deserts - Ecology |
description |
Deserts are the most abundant terrestrial biome on Earth, and microbial processes assume a major role since environmental stress severely limits higher plant and animal life. A major hurdle to developing an understanding of microbial ecology in deserts has been the lack of knowledge at the fundamental biodiversity level. This is due to lack of research focus and also the inherent bias in ‘traditional’ microbial diversity estimates based upon cultivation. In this thesis an evaluation of culture-independent approaches employing both DNA and RNA from environmental samples was made with comparison to more traditional cultivation techniques. These were then applied to soils from hot and cold deserts, and along stress gradients from semi-arid to hyper-arid. A literature review was first conducted to assess the extent of current knowledge and identify critical knowledge gaps. The scientific study was then carried out as follows. The second chapter presents an evaluation of fungal taxa using cultivation, DNA and RNA based techniques. The findings indicated major taxa are revealed in all approaches, yet differences in less abundant taxa occur. The third chapter describes fungal assemblages in the soils of the McMurdo Dry Valleys, a cold polar desert. In this study, RNA based approaches tracked active fungal assemblages, whilst DNA and cultivation revealed additional taxa. Chapter four analyzed microbial communities in the Thar Desert, a hot monsoon desert in India. This study revealed a diverse community that comprised known desiccation-tolerant taxa but also a phylogenetically broad range of bacteria, archaea and eukarya. Chapter 5 focuses on the delineation of total versus active microorganisms in environmental samples from the hot deserts. As with the initial experiments, this revealed that total and active assemblages track each other broadly in desert soils. A synthesis of the study revealed that certain common microbial phyla are likely well-adapted to xeric stress, although distinct hot and cold desert assemblages ... |
format |
Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis |
author |
Rao, Subramanya. |
author_facet |
Rao, Subramanya. |
author_sort |
Rao, Subramanya. |
title |
Microbial ecology of hot and cold desert soils |
title_short |
Microbial ecology of hot and cold desert soils |
title_full |
Microbial ecology of hot and cold desert soils |
title_fullStr |
Microbial ecology of hot and cold desert soils |
title_full_unstemmed |
Microbial ecology of hot and cold desert soils |
title_sort |
microbial ecology of hot and cold desert soils |
publisher |
The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong) |
publishDate |
2013 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.5353/th_b4961766 http://hdl.handle.net/10722/180946 |
geographic |
McMurdo Dry Valleys |
geographic_facet |
McMurdo Dry Valleys |
genre |
McMurdo Dry Valleys polar desert |
genre_facet |
McMurdo Dry Valleys polar desert |
op_source |
http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B49617667 |
op_relation |
HKU Theses Online (HKUTO) Rao, S. (2012). Microbial ecology of hot and cold desert soils. (Thesis). University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong SAR. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.5353/th_b4961766 doi:10.5353/th_b4961766 b4961766 http://hdl.handle.net/10722/180946 |
op_rights |
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. The author retains all proprietary rights, (such as patent rights) and the right to use in future works. |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY-NC-ND |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5353/th_b4961766 |
_version_ |
1766067218303418368 |