Evidence of plant and animal communities at exposed and subglacial (cave) geothermal sites in Antarctica
| Autor: | S. Craig Cary, Charles Kai-Wu Lee, Laurie B. Connell, Ceridwen I. Fraser |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2017 |
| Předmět: |
0106 biological sciences
0301 basic medicine geography geography.geographical_feature_category biology Range (biology) Biodiversity 15. Life on land Erebus biology.organism_classification 010603 evolutionary biology 01 natural sciences 03 medical and health sciences 030104 developmental biology Oceanography Algae Volcano Cave 13. Climate action 14. Life underwater Glacial period General Agricultural and Biological Sciences Geothermal gradient |
| Zdroj: | Polar Biology. 41:417-421 |
| ISSN: | 1432-2056 0722-4060 |
| Popis: | Geothermal areas, such as volcanoes, might have acted as glacial microrefugia for a wide range of species. The heavily glaciated but volcanically active Antarctic continent presents an ideal system for assessing this hypothesis. Ice-free terrain around volcanoes in Antarctica is, however, often restricted to small patches, whereas subglacial cave systems, formed by vented volcanic steam, can be extensive and interconnected. No observations of macrobiota have yet been made for subglacial geothermal environments in Antarctica, but these organisms are often patchily distributed and can be difficult to find. We carried out metabarcoding (eDNA) analyses of soil samples taken from exposed areas on three volcanoes in Victoria Land, and subglacial caves on Mount Erebus. We found evidence of numerous eukaryotic groups, including mosses, algae, arthropods, oligochaetes and nematodes, at both exposed and subglacial sites. Our findings support the notion that geothermal areas—including subglacial environments—can nurture biodiversity in glaciated regions. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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