At limits of life: Multidisciplinary insights reveal environmental constraints on biotic diversity in Continental Antarctica
Multitrophic communities that maintain the functionality of the extreme Antarctic terrestrial ecosystems, while the simplest of any natural community, are still challenging our knowledge about the limits to life on earth. In this study, we describe and interpret the linkage between the diversity of...
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ftunivwaikato:oai:researchcommons.waikato.ac.nz:10289/6715 2023-11-12T04:07:32+01:00 At limits of life: Multidisciplinary insights reveal environmental constraints on biotic diversity in Continental Antarctica Magalhães, Catarina M. Stevens, Mark I. Cary, S. Craig Ball, Becky A. Storey, Bryan Wall, Diana H. Türk, Roman Ruprecht, Ulrike United States 2012 application/pdf https://hdl.handle.net/10289/6715 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0044578 en eng Public Library of Science PLoS ONE Magalhães, C., Stevens, M. I., Cary, S. C., Ball, B. A., Storey, B., Wall, D. H., Türk, R., et al. (2012). At limits of life: Multidisciplinary insights reveal environmental constraints on biotic diversity in Continental Antarctica. PLoS ONE, 7(9), e44578. 1932-6203 https://hdl.handle.net/10289/6715 doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0044578 ©2012 Magalhães et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Journal Article 2012 ftunivwaikato https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0044578 2023-10-17T17:24:10Z Multitrophic communities that maintain the functionality of the extreme Antarctic terrestrial ecosystems, while the simplest of any natural community, are still challenging our knowledge about the limits to life on earth. In this study, we describe and interpret the linkage between the diversity of different trophic level communities to the geological morphology and soil geochemistry in the remote Transantarctic Mountains (Darwin Mountains, 80°S). We examined the distribution and diversity of biota (bacteria, cyanobacteria, lichens, algae, invertebrates) with respect to elevation, age of glacial drift sheets, and soil physicochemistry. Results showed an abiotic spatial gradient with respect to the diversity of the organisms across different trophic levels. More complex communities, in terms of trophic level diversity, were related to the weakly developed younger drifts (Hatherton and Britannia) with higher soil C/N ratio and lower total soluble salts content (thus lower conductivity). Our results indicate that an increase of ion concentration from younger to older drift regions drives a succession of complex to more simple communities, in terms of number of trophic levels and diversity within each group of organisms analysed. This study revealed that integrating diversity across multi-trophic levels of biotic communities with abiotic spatial heterogeneity and geological history is fundamental to understand environmental constraints influencing biological distribution in Antarctic soil ecosystems Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica The University of Waikato: Research Commons Antarctic Britannia ENVELOPE(-62.681,-62.681,-64.718,-64.718) Darwin Mountains ENVELOPE(156.250,156.250,-79.850,-79.850) Transantarctic Mountains PLoS ONE 7 9 e44578 |
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Open Polar |
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The University of Waikato: Research Commons |
op_collection_id |
ftunivwaikato |
language |
English |
description |
Multitrophic communities that maintain the functionality of the extreme Antarctic terrestrial ecosystems, while the simplest of any natural community, are still challenging our knowledge about the limits to life on earth. In this study, we describe and interpret the linkage between the diversity of different trophic level communities to the geological morphology and soil geochemistry in the remote Transantarctic Mountains (Darwin Mountains, 80°S). We examined the distribution and diversity of biota (bacteria, cyanobacteria, lichens, algae, invertebrates) with respect to elevation, age of glacial drift sheets, and soil physicochemistry. Results showed an abiotic spatial gradient with respect to the diversity of the organisms across different trophic levels. More complex communities, in terms of trophic level diversity, were related to the weakly developed younger drifts (Hatherton and Britannia) with higher soil C/N ratio and lower total soluble salts content (thus lower conductivity). Our results indicate that an increase of ion concentration from younger to older drift regions drives a succession of complex to more simple communities, in terms of number of trophic levels and diversity within each group of organisms analysed. This study revealed that integrating diversity across multi-trophic levels of biotic communities with abiotic spatial heterogeneity and geological history is fundamental to understand environmental constraints influencing biological distribution in Antarctic soil ecosystems |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Magalhães, Catarina M. Stevens, Mark I. Cary, S. Craig Ball, Becky A. Storey, Bryan Wall, Diana H. Türk, Roman Ruprecht, Ulrike |
spellingShingle |
Magalhães, Catarina M. Stevens, Mark I. Cary, S. Craig Ball, Becky A. Storey, Bryan Wall, Diana H. Türk, Roman Ruprecht, Ulrike At limits of life: Multidisciplinary insights reveal environmental constraints on biotic diversity in Continental Antarctica |
author_facet |
Magalhães, Catarina M. Stevens, Mark I. Cary, S. Craig Ball, Becky A. Storey, Bryan Wall, Diana H. Türk, Roman Ruprecht, Ulrike |
author_sort |
Magalhães, Catarina M. |
title |
At limits of life: Multidisciplinary insights reveal environmental constraints on biotic diversity in Continental Antarctica |
title_short |
At limits of life: Multidisciplinary insights reveal environmental constraints on biotic diversity in Continental Antarctica |
title_full |
At limits of life: Multidisciplinary insights reveal environmental constraints on biotic diversity in Continental Antarctica |
title_fullStr |
At limits of life: Multidisciplinary insights reveal environmental constraints on biotic diversity in Continental Antarctica |
title_full_unstemmed |
At limits of life: Multidisciplinary insights reveal environmental constraints on biotic diversity in Continental Antarctica |
title_sort |
at limits of life: multidisciplinary insights reveal environmental constraints on biotic diversity in continental antarctica |
publisher |
Public Library of Science |
publishDate |
2012 |
url |
https://hdl.handle.net/10289/6715 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0044578 |
op_coverage |
United States |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-62.681,-62.681,-64.718,-64.718) ENVELOPE(156.250,156.250,-79.850,-79.850) |
geographic |
Antarctic Britannia Darwin Mountains Transantarctic Mountains |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic Britannia Darwin Mountains Transantarctic Mountains |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica |
op_relation |
PLoS ONE Magalhães, C., Stevens, M. I., Cary, S. C., Ball, B. A., Storey, B., Wall, D. H., Türk, R., et al. (2012). At limits of life: Multidisciplinary insights reveal environmental constraints on biotic diversity in Continental Antarctica. PLoS ONE, 7(9), e44578. 1932-6203 https://hdl.handle.net/10289/6715 doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0044578 |
op_rights |
©2012 Magalhães et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0044578 |
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PLoS ONE |
container_volume |
7 |
container_issue |
9 |
container_start_page |
e44578 |
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1782328167577419776 |