Diverse hypolithic refuge communities in the McMurdo Dry Valleys
Diverse hypolithic refuge communities in the McMurdo Dry Valleys
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DOI：
10.1017/s0954102010000507
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发表时间：
2010-12-01
影响因子：
1.6
通讯作者：
Cary, S. Craig
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Cowan, Don A.;Khan, Nuraan;Cary, S. Craig
极度干旱的沙漠对生命构成了极大的挑战。石英和其他半透明岩石提供的环境缓冲，使低层微生物群落能够在这些岩石的下层土壤表面发展。据报道，这些避难社区，在世界各地的许多地方，主要是蓝藻的性质。在这里，我们报告的发现在南极洲的超干旱麦克默多干谷的三个明显不同类型的hypolithic社区。根据总的殖民形态和鉴定的优势类群，我们已分类hypolithic社区为I型（蓝藻为主），II型（真菌为主）和III型（苔藓为主）。这一发现支持了人们对南极沙漠高度生物复杂性的日益认识，强调了神秘微生物群落在营养循环中可能的重要性，并为寒冷干旱景观中可能的群落演替过程提供了证据。
Hyper-arid deserts present extreme challenges to life. The environmental buffering provided by quartz and other translucent rocks allows hypolithic microbial communities to develop on sub-soil surfaces of such rocks. These refuge communities have been reported, for many locations worldwide, to be predominantly cyanobacterial in nature. Here we report the discovery in Antarctica's hyper-arid McMurdo Dry Valleys of three clearly distinguishable types of hypolithic community. Based on gross colonization morphology and identification of dominant taxa, we have classified hypolithic communities as Type I (cyanobacterial dominated), Type II (fungal dominated) and Type III (moss dominated). This discovery supports a growing awareness of the high biocomplexity in Antarctic deserts, emphasizes the possible importance of cryptic microbial communities in nutrient cycling and provides evidence for possible successional community processes within a cold arid landscape.