Arctic microbial ecosystems and impacts of extreme warming during the International Polar Year |
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| Authors: | Warwick F Vincent Lyle G Whyte Connie Lovejoy Charles W Greer Isabelle Laurion Curtis A Suttle Jacques Corbeil Derek R Mueller |
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| Institution: | 1. Centre d''Études Nordiques & Dépt. de Biologie, Université Laval, Pavillon Vachon, Québec, QC G1V 0A6, Canada;2. Department of Natural Resource Sciences, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada;3. Québec-Océan, IBIS & Dépt. de Biologie, Université Laval, Québec, QC G1V 0A6, Canada;4. National Research Council of Canada, Biotechnology Research Institute, Montreal, QC H4P 2R2, Canada;5. Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique – Eau Terre Environnement, Québec, QC G1K 9A9, Canada;6. Earth & Ocean Sciences, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4, Canada;7. Infectiology and Cancer Research Centres, Québec, QC G1V 4G2, Canada;8. Geography Department, Trent University, Peterborough, ON K9J 7B8, Canada |
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| Abstract: | As a contribution to the International Polar Year program MERGE (Microbiological and Ecological Responses to Global Environmental change in polar regions), studies were conducted on the terrestrial and aquatic microbial ecosystems of northern Canada (details at: http://www.cen.ulaval.ca/merge/). The habitats included permafrost soils, saline coldwater springs, supraglacial lakes on ice shelves, epishelf lakes in fjords, deep meromictic lakes, and shallow lakes, ponds and streams. Microbiological samples from each habitat were analysed by HPLC pigment assays, light and fluorescence microscopy, and DNA sequencing. The results show a remarkably diverse microflora of viruses, Archaea (including ammonium oxidisers and methanotrophs), Bacteria (including filamentous sulfur-oxidisers in a saline spring and benthic mats of Cyanobacteria in many waterbodies), and protists (including microbial eukaryotes in snowbanks and ciliates in ice-dammed lakes). In summer 2008, we recorded extreme warming at Ward Hunt Island and vicinity, the northern limit of the Canadian high Arctic, with air temperatures up to 20.5 °C. This was accompanied by pronounced changes in microbial habitats: deepening of the permafrost active layer; loss of perennial lake ice and sea ice; loss of ice-dammed freshwater lakes; and 23% loss of total ice shelf area, including complete break-up and loss of the Markham Ice Shelf cryo-ecosystem. These observations underscore the vulnerability of Arctic microbial ecosystems to ongoing climate change. |
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