Bacterial diversity in snow from mid-latitude mountain areas: Alps, Eastern Anatolia, Karakoram and Himalaya

Snow can be considered an independent ecosystem that hosts active microbial communities. Snow microbial communities have been extensively investigated in the Arctic and in the Antarctica, but rarely in mid-latitude mountain areas. In this study, we investigated the bacterial communities of snow coll...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Annals of Glaciology
Main Authors: Azzoni, Roberto Sergio, Tagliaferri, Ilario, Franzetti, Andrea, Mayer, Christoph, Lambrecht, Astrid, Compostella, Chiara, Caccianiga, Marco, Minora, Umberto Filippo, Garzonio, Carlo Alberto, Meraldi, Eraldo, Smiraglia, Claudio, Diolaiuti, Guglielmina Adele, Ambrosini, Roberto
Other Authors: R.S. Azzoni, I. Tagliaferri, A. Franzetti, C. Mayer, A. Lambrecht, C. Compostella, M. Caccianiga, U.F. Minora, C.A. Garzonio, E. Meraldi, C. Smiraglia, G.A. Diolaiuti, R. Ambrosini
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Cambridge University Press 2018
Subjects:
microbiology
mountain glacier
snow
Earth-Surface Processes
Settore BIO/07 - Ecologia
Settore BIO/19 - Microbiologia Generale
Settore GEO/04 - Geografia Fisica e Geomorfologia
Antarc*
Antarctica
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/2434/613804
https://doi.org/10.1017/aog.2018.18
Description
Summary:Snow can be considered an independent ecosystem that hosts active microbial communities. Snow microbial communities have been extensively investigated in the Arctic and in the Antarctica, but rarely in mid-latitude mountain areas. In this study, we investigated the bacterial communities of snow collected in four glacierized areas (Alps, Eastern Anatolia, Karakoram and Himalaya) by high-throughput DNA sequencing. We also investigated the origin of the air masses that produced the sampled snowfalls by reconstructing back-trajectories. A standardized approach was applied to all the analyses in order to ease comparison among different communities and geographical areas. The bacterial communities hosted from 25 to 211 Operational Taxonomic Units (OTUs), and their structure differed significantly between geographical areas. This suggests that snow bacterial communities may largely derive from 'local' air bacteria, maybe by deposition of airborne particulate of local origin that occurs during snowfall. However, some evidences suggest that a contribution of bacteria collected during air mass uplift to snow communities cannot be excluded, particularly when the air mass that originated the snow event is particularly rich in dust.

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