Deposition and postdeposition mechanisms as possible drivers of microbial population variability in glacier ice

Role of Cyanobacteria in the assembly and dynamics of microbial communities on glacier surfaces

Glacier surface habitats are dynamic ecosystems that respond to local climatic and thermal changes, although the assembly mechanisms of microbial communities in these environments remain unclear. This study examined microbial communities on the surface of Baishui Glacier No. 1 across the accumulation, the intense melt, and the late melt periods. The absolute abundance of Cyanobacteria increased significantly, becoming the most abundant phylum by the end of the melt period. Cyanobacteria were strongly associated with other local microorganisms, especially in community structure, community assembly, and co-occurrence networks. The correlations between Cyanobacteria and other microorganisms shifted from predominantly mutualistic interactions, to being predominantly competitive interactions, and finally to mutualistic interactions with a portion of the community. Additionally, Cyanobacteria abundance positively correlated with nitrogen metabolism multifunctionality in other microorganisms, indicating a potential link between Cyanobacteria and nitrogen cycling. These findings provide new insights into microbial community dynamics and survival strategies on glacier surfaces.

Diversity and function of mountain and polar supraglacial DNA viruses

Mountain and polar glaciers cover 10% of the Earth's surface and are typically extreme environments that challenge life of all forms. Viruses are abundant and active in supraglacial ecosystems and play a crucial role in controlling the supraglacial microbial communities. However, our understanding of virus ecology on glacier surfaces and their potential impacts on downstream ecosystems remains limited. Here, we present the supraglacial virus genome (SgVG) catalog, a 15-fold expanded genomic inventory of 10,840 DNA-virus species from 38 mountain and polar glaciers, spanning habitats such as snow, ice, meltwater, and cryoconite. Supraglacial DNA-viruses were highly specific compared to viruses in other ecosystems yet exhibited low public health risks. Supraglacial viral communities were primarily constrained by habitat, with cryoconite displaying the highest viral activity levels. We observed a prevalence of lytic viruses in all habitats, especially in cryoconite, but a high level of lysogenic viruses in snow and ice. Additionally, we found that supraglacial viruses could be linked to ∼83% of obtained prokaryotic phyla/classes and possessed the genetic potential to promote metabolism and increase cold adaptation, cell mobility, and phenolic carbon use of hosts in hostile environmental conditions using diverse auxiliary metabolic genes. Our results provide the first systematic characterization of the diversity, function, and public health risks evaluation of mountain and polar supraglacial DNA viruses. This understanding of glacial viruses is crucial for function assessments and ecological modeling of glacier ecosystems, especially for the Tibetan Plateau's Mountain glaciers, which support ∼20% of the human populations on Earth.

Active and dormant microorganisms on glacier surfaces

Glacier and ice sheet surfaces host diverse communities of microorganisms whose activity (or inactivity) influences biogeochemical cycles and ice melting. Supraglacial microbes endure various environmental extremes including resource scarcity, frequent temperature fluctuations above and below the freezing point of water, and high UV irradiance during summer followed by months of total darkness during winter. One strategy that enables microbial life to persist through environmental extremes is dormancy, which despite being prevalent among microbial communities in natural settings, has not been directly measured and quantified in glacier surface ecosystems. Here, we use a combination of metabarcoding and metatranscriptomic analyses, as well as cell-specific activity (BONCAT) incubations to assess the diversity and activity of microbial communities from glacial surfaces in Iceland and Greenland. We also present a new ecological model for glacier microorganisms and simulate physiological state-changes in the glacial microbial community under idealized (i) freezing, (ii) thawing, and (iii) freeze-thaw conditions. We show that a high proportion (>50%) of bacterial cells are translationally active in-situ on snow and ice surfaces, with Actinomycetota, Pseudomonadota, and Planctomycetota dominating the total and active community compositions, and that glacier microorganisms, even when frozen, could resume translational activity within 24 h after thawing. Our data suggest that glacial microorganisms respond rapidly to dynamic and changing conditions typical of their natural environment. We deduce that the biology and biogeochemistry of glacier surfaces are shaped by processes occurring over short (i.e., daily) timescales, and thus are susceptible to change following the expected alterations to the melt-regime of glaciers driven by climate change. A better understanding of the activity of microorganisms on glacier surfaces is critical in addressing the growing concern of climate change in Polar regions, as well as for their use as analogues to life in potentially habitable icy worlds.

Life from a Snowflake: Diversity and Adaptation of Cold-Loving Bacteria among Ice Crystals

Incredible as it is, researchers have now the awareness that even the most extreme environment includes special habitats that host several forms of life. Cold environments cover different compartments of the cryosphere, as sea and freshwater ice, glaciers, snow, and permafrost. Although these are very particular environmental compartments in which various stressors coexist (i.e., freeze–thaw cycles, scarce water availability, irradiance conditions, and poorness of nutrients), diverse specialized microbial communities are harbored. This raises many intriguing questions, many of which are still unresolved. For instance, a challenging focus is to understand if microorganisms survive trapped frozen among ice crystals for long periods of time or if they indeed remain metabolically active. Likewise, a look at their site-specific diversity and at their putative geochemical activity is demanded, as well as at the equally interesting microbial activity at subzero temperatures. The production of special molecules such as strategy of adaptations, cryoprotectants, and ice crystal-controlling molecules is even more intriguing. This paper aims at reviewing all these aspects with the intent of providing a thorough overview of the main contributors in investigating the microbial life in the cryosphere, touching on the themes of diversity, adaptation, and metabolic potential.

Variation of High and Low Nucleic Acid-Content Bacteria in Tibetan Ice Cores and Their Relationship to Black Carbon

Nutrient enrichment caused by black carbon (BC) is a major ecological crisis in glacial ecosystems. The microbiological effects of BC were assessed in this study by using fluorescent fingerprinting assay based on flow cytometry (FCM) of bacterial communities with low (LNA) and high (HNA) nucleic acid-content bacteria. Here, we investigated a high-resolution temporal variation of bacterial abundance and LNA/HNA ratio in Tibetan ice cores. Our results revealed that bacterial abundance was proportional to the atmospheric BC on the glaciers. The shift of LNA functional groups to HNA functional groups in glaciers suggested BC emissions increased the proportion of highly active cells. In addition, distinct number of LNA and HNA functional groups was identified between the monsoon and non-monsoon seasons. Westerly winds with high amounts of BC accounted for high ratio of HNA functional groups during the non-monsoon season. In comparison, high moisture during the monsoon season decreased atmospheric BC loading, which increases the ratio of LNA functional groups. Correlations between BC and functional groups were very strong, showing that two functional groups may serve as early-warning indicators of microbiological effects of BC at low trophic level. Our approach provides a potential early-warning framework to study the influences of atmospheric BC on the glaciological community.

Glacier ice archives nearly 15,000-year-old microbes and phages

BACKGROUND

Glacier ice archives information, including microbiology, that helps reveal paleoclimate histories and predict future climate change. Though glacier-ice microbes are studied using culture or amplicon approaches, more challenging metagenomic approaches, which provide access to functional, genome-resolved information and viruses, are under-utilized, partly due to low biomass and potential contamination.

RESULTS

We expand existing clean sampling procedures using controlled artificial ice-core experiments and adapted previously established low-biomass metagenomic approaches to study glacier-ice viruses. Controlled sampling experiments drastically reduced mock contaminants including bacteria, viruses, and free DNA to background levels. Amplicon sequencing from eight depths of two Tibetan Plateau ice cores revealed common glacier-ice lineages including Janthinobacterium, Polaromonas, Herminiimonas, Flavobacterium, Sphingomonas, and Methylobacterium as the dominant genera, while microbial communities were significantly different between two ice cores, associating with different climate conditions during deposition. Separately, ~355- and ~14,400-year-old ice were subject to viral enrichment and low-input quantitative sequencing, yielding genomic sequences for 33 vOTUs. These were virtually all unique to this study, representing 28 novel genera and not a single species shared with 225 environmentally diverse viromes. Further, 42.4% of the vOTUs were identifiable temperate, which is significantly higher than that in gut, soil, and marine viromes, and indicates that temperate phages are possibly favored in glacier-ice environments before being frozen. In silico host predictions linked 18 vOTUs to co-occurring abundant bacteria (Methylobacterium, Sphingomonas, and Janthinobacterium), indicating that these phages infected ice-abundant bacterial groups before being archived. Functional genome annotation revealed four virus-encoded auxiliary metabolic genes, particularly two motility genes suggest viruses potentially facilitate nutrient acquisition for their hosts. Finally, given their possible importance to methane cycling in ice, we focused on Methylobacterium viruses by contextualizing our ice-observed viruses against 123 viromes and prophages extracted from 131 Methylobacterium genomes, revealing that the archived viruses might originate from soil or plants.

CONCLUSIONS

Together, these efforts further microbial and viral sampling procedures for glacier ice and provide a first window into viral communities and functions in ancient glacier environments. Such methods and datasets can potentially enable researchers to contextualize new discoveries and begin to incorporate glacier-ice microbes and their viruses relative to past and present climate change in geographically diverse regions globally. Video Abstract.

Bacterial Diversity and Communities Structural Dynamics in Soil and Meltwater Runoff at the Frontier of Baishui Glacier No.1, China

Comprehensive knowledge of bacterial ecology mainly in supraglacial habitats is pivotal particularly at the frontier of accelerated glacier retreat. In this study, bacterial diversity and community composition in glacial soil and meltwater runoff at the frontier of Baishui Glacier No.1 were evaluated using high throughput sequencing. Significant variations in the physiochemical parameters formed an ecological gradient between soil and meltwater runoff. Based on the richness and evenness indexes, the bacterial diversity was relatively higher in soil compared with meltwater runoff. Hierarchical clustering and bi-plot ordination revealed that the taxonomic composition of soil samples was highly similar and significantly influenced by the ecological parameters than the meltwater runoff. The overall relative abundance trend of bacterial phyla and genera were greatly varied in soil and water samples. The relative abundance of Proteobacteria was higher in water runoff samples (40.5-87%) compared with soil samples (32-52.7%). Proteobacteria, Firmicutes, and a little part of Cyanobacteria occupied a major portion of water runoff while the soil was dominated by Acidobacteria (6-16.2%), Actinobacteria (5-16%), Bacteroidetes (0.5-8.8%), and Cyanobacteria (0.1-8.3%) besides Proteobacteria and Firmicutes. Higher numbers of biomarkers were found in soil group compared with the water group. The study area is diverse in terms of richness, while community structures are not evenly distributed. This study provides a preliminary understanding of the bacterial diversity and shifts in community structure in soil and meltwater runoff at the frontier of the glacial. The findings revealed that the environmental factors are a significantly strong determinant of bacterial community structures in such a closely linked ecosystem.

Bacterial community structure of a glacio-marine system in the Arctic (Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard)

The bacterial community composition of a valley glacier in Svalbard, its pro-glacial channels, and the associated downstream fjord ecosystem was investigated so as to figure out the degree to which downslope transport of microbes from the glacier systems along a hydrological continuum impose an effect on the patterns of diversity in the fjord system. A combination of culture based and high-throughput amplicon sequencing approach was followed which resulted in significant variation (R = 0.873, p = 0.001) in the bacterial community structure between these ecosystems. Dominance of sequences belonging to class β-Proteobacteria was seen in the glacier snow, ice and melt waters (MW) while a relatively higher abundance of OTUs belonging to α-Proteobacteria and Verrucomicrobiae demarcated the fjord waters. Similarity percentage (SIMPER) analysis of the Operational Taxonomic Units (OTUs) showed that OTU 1,105,280 (9.15%) and OTU 331 (6.5%) belonging to Burkholderiaceae (β-proteobacteria) and OTU 101,660 (5.76%) and OTU 520 (5.07%) belonging to Rhodobacteraceae (α-proteobacteria) contributed maximum to the overall dissimilarity between the sampling sites. The bacterial community from the MWs were found to be true signatures of the glacier ecosystem while the Kongsfjorden bacterial fraction mostly represented heterotrophic marine taxa influenced by warm Atlantic waters and presence of organic matter. Significant presence of unknown taxa in the MWs suggests the need to study such unexplored, transient niches for a better understanding of the associated microbial processes. Among the various environmental parameters measured, nutrients (NO₃^- and SiO₄^2-) were found to exhibit strong association with the MW bacterial community while temperature, trace metals, Cl^- and SO₄^2- ions were found to influence the fjord bacterial community. The significant differences in the bacterial community composition between the glacier and the fjord ecosystem suggest the unique nature of these systems which in turn is influenced by the associated environmental parameters.

The disappearing periglacial ecosystem atop Mt. Kilimanjaro supports both cosmopolitan and endemic microbial communities

Microbial communities have not been studied using molecular approaches at high elevations on the African continent. Here we describe the diversity of microbial communities from ice and periglacial soils from near the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro by using both Illumina and Sanger sequencing of 16S and 18S rRNA genes. Ice and periglacial soils contain unexpectedly diverse and rich assemblages of Bacteria and Eukarya indicating that there may be high rates of dispersal to the top of this tropical mountain and/or that the habitat is more conducive to microbial life than was previously thought. Most bacterial OTUs are cosmopolitan and an analysis of isolation by geographic distance patterns of the genus Polaromonas emphasized the importance of global Aeolian transport in the assembly of bacterial communities on Kilimanjaro. The eukaryotic communities were less diverse than the bacterial communities and showed more evidence of dispersal limitations and apparent endemism. Cercozoa dominated the 18S communities, including a high abundance of testate amoebae and a high diversity of endemic OTUs within the Vampyrellida. These results argue for more intense study of this unique high-elevation "island of the cryosphere" before the glaciers of Kilimanjaro disappear forever.

Aeolian dispersal of bacteria in southwest Greenland: their sources, abundance, diversity and physiological states

The Arctic is undergoing dramatic climatic changes that cause profound transformations in its terrestrial ecosystems and consequently in the microbial communities that inhabit them. The assembly of these communities is affected by aeolian deposition. However, the abundance, diversity, sources and activity of airborne microorganisms in the Arctic are poorly understood. We studied bacteria in the atmosphere over southwest Greenland and found that the diversity of bacterial communities correlated positively with air temperature and negatively with relative humidity. The communities consisted of 1.3×103 ± 1.0×103 cells m-3, which were aerosolized from local terrestrial environments or transported from marine, glaciated and terrestrial surfaces over long distances. On average, airborne bacterial cells displayed a high activity potential, reflected in the high 16S rRNA copy number (590 ± 300 rRNA cell-1), that correlated positively with water vapor pressure. We observed that bacterial clades differed in their activity potential. For instance, a high activity potential was seen for Rubrobacteridae and Clostridiales, while a low activity potential was observed for Proteobacteria. Of those bacterial families that harbor ice-nucleation active species, which are known to facilitate freezing and may thus be involved in cloud and rain formation, cells with a high activity potential were rare in air, but were enriched in rain.

Sources and selection of snow-specific microbial communities in a Greenlandic sea ice snow cover

Sea ice and its snow cover are critical for global processes including climate regulation and biogeochemical cycles. Despite an increase in studies focused on snow microorganisms, the ecology of snow inhabitants remains unclear. In this study, we investigated sources and selection of a snowpack-specific microbial community by comparing metagenomes from samples collected in a Greenlandic fjord within a vertical profile including atmosphere, snowpack with four distinct layers of snow, sea ice brine and seawater. Microbial communities in all snow layers derived from mixed sources, both marine and terrestrial, and were more similar to atmospheric communities than to sea ice or seawater communities. The surface snow metagenomes were characterized by the occurrence of genes involved in photochemical stress resistance, primary production and metabolism of diverse carbon sources. The basal saline snow layer that was in direct contact with the sea ice surface harbored a higher abundance of cells than the overlying snow layers, with a predominance of Alteromonadales and a higher relative abundance of marine representatives. However, the overall taxonomic structure of the saline layer was more similar to that of other snow layers and the atmosphere than to underlying sea ice and seawater. The expulsion of relatively nutrient-rich sea ice brine into basal snow might have stimulated the growth of copiotrophic psychro- and halotolerant snow members. Our study indicates that the size, composition and function of snowpack microbial communities over sea ice were influenced primarily by atmospheric deposition and inflow of sea ice brine and that they form a snow-specific assemblage reflecting the particular environmental conditions of the snowpack habitat.

Habitat-specificity and diversity of culturable cold-adapted yeasts of a cold-based glacier in the Tianshan Mountains, northwestern China

Asian cold-based glacier yeasts with respect to their abundance, distribution, and taxonomy, in contrast to other continental cryosphere areas, have been little investigated. The present study reports the diversity and phylogeny of culturable cold-adapted yeasts in six cold habitats of the Glacier No.1 in the Tianshan Mountains (northwestern China). Of the total 591 yeast isolates, 401 were identified as basidiomycetous yeasts represented by 41 species of 15 genera, while 190 ascomycetous yeast isolates were assigned to the 8 species of 7 genera. The most prevalent species was Candida akabanensis with a 19.8% frequency of occurrence, followed by Vishniacozyma victoriae (16.4%) and Diutina rugosa (9.98%), of which V. victoriae was the only yeast species common to all six glacial habitats. Variability on the component and abundance of yeast taxa among glacial habitats primarily displayed in four dominant yeast genera, namely Candida, Vishniacozyma, Filobasidium, and Naganishia. However, network analysis illustrated that most of 32 rare yeast populations were habitat-specific, implying that the low-abundance yeast population was more easily influenced by the local habitat conditions (species sorting). Based on indicator species analyses, the subglacial habitat was characterized by psychrotolerant and/or psychrophilic yeast taxa.

Clean Low-Biomass Procedures and Their Application to Ancient Ice Core Microorganisms

Microorganisms in glacier ice provide tens to hundreds of thousands of years archive for a changing climate and microbial responses to it. Analyzing ancient ice is impeded by technical issues, including limited ice, low biomass, and contamination. While many approaches have been evaluated and advanced to remove contaminants on ice core surfaces, few studies leverage modern sequencing to establish in silico decontamination protocols for glacier ice. Here we sought to apply such “clean” sampling techniques with in silico decontamination approaches used elsewhere to investigate microorganisms archived in ice at ∼41 (D41, ∼20,000 years) and ∼49 m (D49, ∼30,000 years) depth in an ice core (GS3) from the summit of the Guliya ice cap in the northwestern Tibetan Plateau. Four “background” controls were established – a co-processed sterile water artificial ice core, two air samples collected from the ice processing laboratories, and a blank, sterile water sample – and used to assess contaminant microbial diversity and abundances. Amplicon sequencing revealed 29 microbial genera in these controls, but quantitative PCR showed that the controls contained about 50–100-times less 16S DNA than the glacial ice samples. As in prior work, we interpreted these low-abundance taxa in controls as “contaminants” and proportionally removed them in silico from the GS3 ice amplicon data. Because of the low biomass in the controls, we also compared prokaryotic 16S DNA amplicons from pre-amplified (by re-conditioning PCR) and standard amplicon sequencing, and found the resulting microbial profiles to be repeatable and nearly identical. Ecologically, the contaminant-controlled ice microbial profiles revealed significantly different microorganisms across the two depths in the GS3 ice core, which is consistent with changing climate, as reported for other glacier ice samples. Many GS3 ice core genera, including Methylobacterium, Sphingomonas, Flavobacterium, Janthinobacterium, Polaromonas, and Rhodobacter, were also abundant in previously studied ice cores, which suggests wide distribution across glacier environments. Together these findings help further establish “clean” procedures for studying low-biomass ice microbial communities and contribute to a baseline understanding of microorganisms archived in glacier ice.

Prokaryotes in the WAIS Divide ice core reflect source and transport changes between Last Glacial Maximum and the early Holocene

We present the first long-term, highly resolved prokaryotic cell concentration record obtained from a polar ice core. This record, obtained from the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) Divide (WD) ice core, spanned from the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) to the early Holocene (EH) and showed distinct fluctuations in prokaryotic cell concentration coincident with major climatic states. The time series also revealed a ~1,500-year periodicity with greater amplitude during the Last Deglaciation (LDG). Higher prokaryotic cell concentration and lower variability occurred during the LGM and EH than during the LDG. A sevenfold decrease in prokaryotic cell concentration coincided with the LGM/LDG transition and the global 19 ka meltwater pulse. Statistical models revealed significant relationships between the prokaryotic cell record and tracers of both marine (sea-salt sodium [ssNa]) and burning emissions (black carbon [BC]). Collectively, these models, together with visual observations and methanosulfidic acid (MSA) measurements, indicated that the temporal variability in concentration of airborne prokaryotic cells reflected changes in marine/sea-ice regional environments of the WAIS. Our data revealed that variations in source and transport were the most likely processes producing the significant temporal variations in WD prokaryotic cell concentrations. This record provided strong evidence that airborne prokaryotic cell deposition differed during the LGM, LDG, and EH, and that these changes in cell densities could be explained by different environmental conditions during each of these climatic periods. Our observations provide the first ice-core time series evidence for a prokaryotic response to long-term climatic and environmental processes.

Microbial ecology of mountain glacier ecosystems: biodiversity, ecological connections and implications of a warming climate

Glacier ecosystems are teeming with life on, beneath, and to a lesser degree, within their icy masses. This conclusion largely stems from polar research, with less attention paid to mountain glaciers that overlap environmentally and ecologically with their polar counterparts in some ways, but diverge in others. One difference lies in the susceptibility of mountain glaciers to the near-term threat of climate change, as they tend to be much smaller in both area and volume. Moreover, mountain glaciers are typically steeper, more dependent upon basal sliding for movement, and experience higher seasonal precipitation. Here, we provide a modern synthesis of the microbial ecology of mountain glacier ecosystems, and particularly those at low- to mid-latitudes. We focus on five ecological zones: the supraglacial surface, englacial interior, subglacial bedrock-ice interface, proglacial streams and glacier forefields. For each, we discuss the role of microbiota in biogeochemical cycling and outline ecological and hydrological connections among zones, underscoring the interconnected nature of these ecosystems. Collectively, we highlight the need to: better document the biodiversity and functional roles of mountain glacier microbiota; describe the ecological implications of rapid glacial retreat under climate change and resolve the relative contributions of ecological zones to broader ecosystem function.

Differences in Bacterial Diversity and Communities Between Glacial Snow and Glacial Soil on the Chongce Ice Cap, West Kunlun Mountains

A detailed understanding of microbial ecology in different supraglacial habitats is important due to the unprecedented speed of glacier retreat. Differences in bacterial diversity and community structure between glacial snow and glacial soil on the Chongce Ice Cap were assessed using 454 pyrosequencing. Based on rarefaction curves, Chao1, ACE, and Shannon indices, we found that bacterial diversity in glacial snow was lower than that in glacial soil. Principal coordinate analysis (PCoA) and heatmap analysis indicated that there were major differences in bacterial communities between glacial snow and glacial soil. Most bacteria were different between the two habitats; however, there were some common bacteria shared between glacial snow and glacial soil. Some rare or functional bacterial resources were also present in the Chongce Ice Cap. These findings provide a preliminary understanding of the shifts in bacterial diversity and communities from glacial snow to glacial soil after the melting and inflow of glacial snow into glacial soil.

Evidence of adaptation, niche separation and microevolution within the genus Polaromonas on Arctic and Antarctic glacial surfaces

Polaromonas is one of the most abundant genera found on glacier surfaces, yet its ecology remains poorly described. Investigations made to date point towards a uniform distribution of Polaromonas phylotypes across the globe. We compared 43 Polaromonas isolates obtained from surfaces of Arctic and Antarctic glaciers to address this issue. 16S rRNA gene sequences, intergenic transcribed spacers (ITS) and metabolic fingerprinting showed great differences between hemispheres but also between neighboring glaciers. Phylogenetic distance between Arctic and Antarctic isolates indicated separate species. The Arctic group clustered similarly, when constructing dendrograms based on 16S rRNA gene and ITS sequences, as well as metabolic traits. The Antarctic strains, although almost identical considering 16S rRNA genes, diverged into 2 groups based on the ITS sequences and metabolic traits, suggesting recent niche separation. Certain phenotypic traits pointed towards cell adaptation to specific conditions on a particular glacier, like varying pH levels. Collected data suggest, that seeding of glacial surfaces with Polaromonas cells transported by various means, is of greater efficiency on local than global scales. Selection mechanisms present of glacial surfaces reduce the deposited Polaromonas diversity, causing subsequent adaptation to prevailing environmental conditions. Furthermore, interactions with other supraglacial microbiota, like algae cells may drive postselectional niche separation and microevolution within the Polaromonas genus.

Global and local-scale variation in bacterial community structure of snow from the Swiss and Australian Alps

Seasonally, snow environments cover up to 50% of the land's surface, yet the microbial diversity and ecosystem functioning within snow, particularly from alpine regions are not well described. This study explores the bacterial diversity in snow using next-generation sequencing technology. Our data expand the global inventory of snow microbiomes by focusing on two understudied regions, the Swiss Alps and the Australian Alps. A total biomass similar to cell numbers in polar snow was detected, with 5.2 to 10.5 × 10(3) cells mL(-1) of snow. We found that microbial community structure of surface snow varied by country and site and along the altitudinal range (alpine and sub-alpine). The bacterial communities present were diverse, spanning 25 distinct phyla, but the six phyla Proteobacteria (Alpha- and Betaproteobacteria), Acidobacteria, Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Cyanobacteria and Firmicutes, accounted for 72%-98% of the total relative abundance. Taxa such as Acidobacteriaceae and Methylocystaceae, associated with cold soils, may be part of the atmospherically sourced snow community, while families like Sphingomonadaceae were detected in every snow sample and are likely part of the common snow biome.

Bacterial responses to environmental change on the Tibetan Plateau over the past half century

Climate change and anthropogenic factors can alter biodiversity and can lead to changes in community structure and function. Despite the potential impacts, no long-term records of climatic influences on microbial communities exist. The Tibetan Plateau is a highly sensitive region that is currently undergoing significant alteration resulting from both climate change and increased human activity. Ice cores from glaciers in this region serve as unique natural archives of bacterial abundance and community composition, and contain concomitant records of climate and environmental change. We report high-resolution profiles of bacterial density and community composition over the past half century in ice cores from three glaciers on the Tibetan Plateau. Statistical analysis showed that the bacterial community composition in the three ice cores converged starting in the 1990s. Changes in bacterial community composition were related to changing precipitation, increasing air temperature and anthropogenic activities in the vicinity of the plateau. Collectively, our ice core data on bacteria in concert with environmental and anthropogenic proxies indicate that the convergence of bacterial communities deposited on glaciers across a wide geographical area and situated in diverse habitat types was likely induced by climatic and anthropogenic drivers.

Taxonomic characterization and the bio-potential of bacteria isolated from glacier ice cores in the High Arctic

Glacier ice and firn cores have ecological and biotechnological importance. The present study is aimed at characterizing bacteria in crustal ice cores from Svalbard, the Arctic. Counts of viable isolates ranged from 10 to 7000 CFU/ml (mean 803 CFU/ml) while the total bacterial numbers ranged from 7.20 × 10(4) to 2.59 × 10(7)  cells ml(-1) (mean 3.12 × 10(6)  cells ml(-1) ). Based on 16S rDNA sequence data, the identified species belonged to seven species, namely Bacillus barbaricus, Pseudomonas orientalis, Pseudomonas oryzihabitans, Pseudomonas fluorescens, Pseudomonas syncyanea, Sphingomonas dokdonensis, and Sphingomonas phyllosphaerae, with a sequence similarity ranging between 93.5 and 99.9% with taxa present in the database. The isolates exhibited unique phenotypic properties, and three isolates (MLB-2, MLB-5, and MLB-9) are novel species, yet to be described. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report on characterization of cultured bacterial communities from Svalbard ice cores. We conclude that high lipase, protease, cellulase, amylase, and urease activities expressed by most of the isolates provide a clue to the potential industrial applications of these organisms. These microbes, producing cold-adapted enzymes may provide an opportunity for biotechnological research.

Microbial abundance in surface ice on the Greenland Ice Sheet

Measuring microbial abundance in glacier ice and identifying its controls is essential for a better understanding and quantification of biogeochemical processes in glacial ecosystems. However, cell enumeration of glacier ice samples is challenging due to typically low cell numbers and the presence of interfering mineral particles. We quantified for the first time the abundance of microbial cells in surface ice from geographically distinct sites on the Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS), using three enumeration methods: epifluorescence microscopy (EFM), flow cytometry (FCM), and quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). In addition, we reviewed published data on microbial abundance in glacier ice and tested the three methods on artificial ice samples of realistic cell (10²–10⁷ cells ml⁻¹) and mineral particle (0.1–100 mg ml⁻¹) concentrations, simulating a range of glacial ice types, from clean subsurface ice to surface ice to sediment-laden basal ice. We then used multivariate statistical analysis to identify factors responsible for the variation in microbial abundance on the ice sheet. EFM gave the most accurate and reproducible results of the tested methodologies, and was therefore selected as the most suitable technique for cell enumeration of ice containing dust. Cell numbers in surface ice samples, determined by EFM, ranged from ~ 2 × 10³ to ~ 2 × 10⁶ cells ml⁻¹ while dust concentrations ranged from 0.01 to 2 mg ml⁻¹. The lowest abundances were found in ice sampled from the accumulation area of the ice sheet and in samples affected by fresh snow; these samples may be considered as a reference point of the cell abundance of precipitants that are deposited on the ice sheet surface. Dust content was the most significant variable to explain the variation in the abundance data, which suggests a direct association between deposited dust particles and cells and/or by their provision of limited nutrients to microbial communities on the GrIS.

Stable microbial community composition on the Greenland Ice Sheet

The first molecular-based studies of microbes in snow and on glaciers have only recently been performed on the vast Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS). Aeolian microbial seeding is hypothesized to impact on glacier surface community compositions. Localized melting of glacier debris (cryoconite) into the surface ice forms cryoconite holes, which are considered ‘hot spots’ for microbial activity on glaciers. To date, few studies have attempted to assess the origin and evolution of cryoconite and cryoconite hole communities throughout a melt season. In this study, a range of experimental approaches was used for the first time to study the inputs, temporal and structural transformations of GrIS microbial communities over the course of a whole ablation season. Small amounts of aeolian (wind and snow) microbes were potentially seeding the stable communities that were already present on the glacier (composed mainly of Proteobacteria, Cyanobacteria, and Actinobacteria). However, the dominant bacterial taxa in the aeolian samples (Firmicutes) did not establish themselves in local glacier surface communities. Cryoconite and cryoconite hole community composition remained stable throughout the ablation season following the fast community turnover, which accompanied the initial snow melt. The presence of stable communities in cryoconite and cryoconite holes on the GrIS will allow future studies to assess glacier surface microbial diversity at individual study sites from sampling intervals of short duration only. Aeolian inputs also had significantly different organic δ¹³C values (-28.0 to -27.0‰) from the glacier surface values (-25.7 to -23.6‰), indicating that in situ microbial processes are important in fixing new organic matter and transforming aeolian organic carbon. The continuous productivity of stable communities over one melt season makes them important contributors to biogeochemical nutrient cycling on glaciers.

Microbial abundance and community structure in a melting alpine snowpack

Snowmelt is a crucial period for alpine soil ecosystems, as it is related to inputs of nutrients, particulate matter and microorganisms to the underlying soil. Although snow-inhabiting microbial communities represent an important inoculum for soils, they have thus far received little attention. The distribution and structure of these microorganisms in the snowpack may be linked to the physical properties of the snowpack at snowmelt. Snow samples were taken from snow profiles at four sites (1930-2519 m a.s.l.) in the catchment of the Tiefengletscher, Canton Uri, Switzerland. Microbial (Archaea, Bacteria and Fungi) communities were investigated through T-RFLP profiling of the 16S and 18S rRNA genes, respectively. In parallel, we assessed physical and chemical parameters relevant to the understanding of melting processes. Along the snow profiles, density increased with depth due to compaction, while other physico-chemical parameters, such as temperature and concentrations of DOC and soluble ions, remained in the same range (e.g. <2 mg DOC L(-1), 5-30 μg NH4 (+)-N L(-1)) in all samples at all sites. Along the snow profiles, no major change was observed either in cell abundance or in bacterial and fungal diversity. No Archaea could be detected in the snow. Microbial communities, however, differed significantly between sites. Our results show that meltwater rearranges soluble ions and microbial communities in the snowpack.

Recently deglaciated high-altitude soils of the Himalaya: diverse environments, heterogenous bacterial communities and long-range dust inputs from the upper troposphere

Background

The Himalaya with its altitude and geographical position forms a barrier to atmospheric transport, which produces much aqueous-particle monsoon precipitation and makes it the largest continuous ice-covered area outside polar regions. There is a paucity of data on high-altitude microbial communities, their native environments and responses to environmental-spatial variables relative to seasonal and deglaciation events.

Methodology/Principal Findings

Soils were sampled along altitude transects from 5000 m to 6000 m to determine environmental, spatial and seasonal factors structuring bacterial communities characterized by 16 S rRNA gene deep sequencing. Dust traps and fresh-snow samples were used to assess dust abundance and viability, community structure and abundance of dust associated microbial communities. Significantly different habitats among the altitude-transect samples corresponded to both phylogenetically distant and closely-related communities at distances as short as 50 m showing high community spatial divergence. High within-group variability that was related to an order of magnitude higher dust deposition obscured seasonal and temporal rearrangements in microbial communities. Although dust particle and associated cell deposition rates were highly correlated, seasonal dust communities of bacteria were distinct and differed significantly from recipient soil communities. Analysis of closest relatives to dust OTUs, HYSPLIT back-calculation of airmass trajectories and small dust particle size (4–12 µm) suggested that the deposited dust and microbes came from distant continental, lacustrine and marine sources, e.g. Sahara, India, Caspian Sea and Tibetan plateau. Cyanobacteria represented less than 0.5% of microbial communities suggesting that the microbial communities benefitted from (co)deposited carbon which was reflected in the psychrotolerant nature of dust-particle associated bacteria.

Conclusions/Significance

The spatial, environmental and temporal complexity of the high-altitude soils of the Himalaya generates ongoing disturbance and colonization events that subject heterogeneous microniches to stochastic colonization by far away dust associated microbes and result in the observed spatially divergent bacterial communities.

Activity and bacterial diversity of snow around Russian Antarctic stations

The diversity and temporal dynamics of bacterial communities in pristine snow around two Russian Antarctic stations was investigated. Taxonomic analysis of rDNA libraries revealed that snow communities were dominated by bacteria from a small number of operational taxonomic units (OTUs) that underwent dramatic swings in abundance between the 54th (2008-2009) and 55th (2009-2010) Russian Antarctic expeditions. Moreover, analysis of the 55th expedition samples indicated that there was very little, if any, correspondence in abundance of clones belonging to the same OTU present in rDNA and rRNA libraries. The latter result suggests that most rDNA clones originate from bacteria that are not alive and/or active and may have been deposited on the snow surface from the atmosphere. In contrast, clones most abundant in rRNA libraries (mostly belonging to Variovorax, Janthinobacterium, Pseudomonas, and Sphingomonas genera) may be considered as endogenous Antarctic snow inhabitants.

Characterizing microbial diversity and the potential for metabolic function at -15 °c in the Basal ice of taylor glacier, antarctica

Measurement of gases entrapped in clean ice from basal portions of the Taylor Glacier, Antarctica, revealed that CO₂ ranged from 229 to 328 ppmv and O₂ was near 20% of the gas volume. In contrast, vertically adjacent sections of the sediment laden basal ice contained much higher concentrations of CO₂ (60,000 to 325,000 ppmv), whereas O₂ represented 4 to 18% of the total gas volume. The deviation in gas composition from atmospheric values occurred concurrently with increased microbial cell concentrations in the basal ice profile, suggesting that in situ microbial processes (i.e., aerobic respiration) may have altered the entrapped gas composition. Molecular characterization of 16S rRNA genes amplified from samples of the basal ice indicated a low diversity of bacteria, and most of the sequences characterized (87%) were affiliated with the phylum, Firmicutes. The most abundant phylotypes in libraries from ice horizons with elevated CO₂ and depleted O₂ concentrations were related to the genus Paenisporosarcina, and 28 isolates from this genus were obtained by enrichment culturing. Metabolic experiments with Paenisporosarcina sp. TG14 revealed its capacity to conduct macromolecular synthesis when frozen in water derived from melted basal ice samples and incubated at −15 °C. The results support the hypothesis that the basal ice of glaciers and ice sheets are cryospheric habitats harboring bacteria with the physiological capacity to remain metabolically active and biogeochemically cycle elements within the subglacial environment.

Use of a four-tiered graph to parse the factors leading to phenotypic clustering in bacteria: a case study based on samples from the Aletsch Glacier

An understanding of bacterial diversity and evolution in any environment requires knowledge of phenotypic diversity. In this study, the underlying factors leading to phenotypic clustering were analyzed and interpreted using a novel approach based on a four-tiered graph. Bacterial isolates were organized into equivalence classes based on their phenotypic profile. Likewise, phenotypes were organized in equivalence classes based on the bacteria that manifest them. The linking of these equivalence classes in a four-tiered graph allowed for a quick visual identification of the phenotypic measurements leading to the clustering patterns deduced from principal component analyses. For evaluation of the method, we investigated phenotypic variation in enzyme production and carbon assimilation of members of the genera Pseudomonas and Serratia, isolated from the Aletsch Glacier in Switzerland. The analysis indicates that the genera isolated produce at least six common enzymes and can exploit a wide range of carbon resources, though some specialist species within the pseudomonads were also observed. We further found that pairwise distances between enzyme profiles strongly correlate with distances based on carbon profiles. However, phenotypic distances weakly correlate with phylogenetic distances. The method developed in this study facilitates a more comprehensive understanding of phenotypic clustering than what would be deduced from principal component analysis alone.

The dynamic bacterial communities of a melting High Arctic glacier snowpack

Snow environments can occupy over a third of land surface area, but little is known about the dynamics of snowpack bacteria. The effect of snow melt on bacterial community structure and diversity of surface environments of a Svalbard glacier was examined using analyses of 16S rRNA genes via T-RFLP, qPCR and 454 pyrosequencing. Distinct community structures were found in different habitat types, with changes over 1 week apparent, in particular for the dominant bacterial class present, Betaproteobacteria. The differences observed were consistent with influences from depositional mode (snowfall vs aeolian dusts), contrasting snow with dust-rich snow layers and near-surface ice. Contrary to that, slush as the decompositional product of snow harboured distinct lineages of bacteria, further implying post-depositional changes in community structure. Taxa affiliated to the betaproteobacterial genus Polaromonas were particularly dynamic, and evidence for the presence of betaproteobacterial ammonia-oxidizing bacteria was uncovered, inviting the prospect that the dynamic bacterial communities associated with snowpacks may be active in supraglacial nitrogen cycling and capable of rapid responses to changes induced by snowmelt. Furthermore the potential of supraglacial snowpack ecosystems to respond to transient yet spatially extensive melting episodes such as that observed across most of Greenland's ice sheet in 2012 merits further investigation.

Life at the wedge: the activity and diversity of arctic ice wedge microbial communities

The discovery of polygonal terrain on Mars underlain by ice heightens interest in the possibility that this water-bearing habitat may be, or may have been, a suitable habitat for extant life. The possibility is supported by the recurring detection of terrestrial microorganisms in subsurface ice environments, such as ice wedges found beneath tundra polygon features. A characterization of the microbial community of ice wedges from the high Arctic was performed to determine whether this ice environment can sustain actively respiring microorganisms and to assess the ecology of this extreme niche. We found that ice wedge samples contained a relatively abundant number of culturable cells compared to other ice habitats (∼10(5) CFU·mL(-1)). Respiration assays in which radio-labeled acetate and in situ measurement of CO(2) flux were used suggested low levels of microbial activity, though more sensitive techniques are required to confirm these findings. Based on 16S rRNA gene pyrosequencing, bacterial and archaeal ice wedge communities appeared to reflect surrounding soil communities. Two Pseudomonas sp. were the most abundant taxa in the ice wedge bacterial library (∼50%), while taxa related to ammonia-oxidizing Thaumarchaeota occupied 90% of the archaeal library. The tolerance of a variety of isolates to salinity and temperature revealed characteristics of a psychrotolerant, halotolerant community. Our findings support the hypothesis that ice wedges are capable of sustaining a diverse, plausibly active microbial community. As such, ice wedges, compared to other forms of less habitable ground ice, could serve as a reservoir for life on permanently cold, water-scarce, ice-rich extraterrestrial bodies and are therefore of interest to astrobiologists and ecologists alike. .

Glaciers and ice sheets as a biome

The tundra is the coldest biome described in typical geography and biology textbooks. Within the cryosphere, there are large expanses of ice in the Antarctic, Arctic and alpine regions that are not regarded as being part of any biome. During the summer, there is significant melt on the surface of glaciers, ice caps and ice shelves, at which point microbial communities become active and play an important role in the cycling of carbon and other elements within the cryosphere. In this review, we suggest that it is time to recognise the cryosphere as one of the biomes of Earth. The cryospheric biome encompasses extreme environments and is typified by truncated food webs dominated by viruses, bacteria, protozoa and algae with distinct biogeographical structures.

Microbes in high arctic snow and implications for the cold biosphere

We applied molecular, microscopic, and culture techniques to characterize the microbial communities in snow and air at remote sites in the Canadian High Arctic (Ward Hunt Island, Ellesmere Island, and Cornwallis Island, latitudes 74 to 83(o)N). Members of the Bacteria and Eukarya were prevalent in the snow, and their small subunit (SSU) rRNA gene signatures indicated strong local aerial transport within the region over the preceding 8 months of winter snowpack accumulation. Many of the operational taxonomic units (OTUs) were similar to previously reported SSU rRNA gene sequences from the Arctic Ocean, suggesting the importance of local aerial transport processes for marine microbiota. More than 47% of the cyanobacterial OTUs in the snow have been previously found in microbial mats in the region, indicating that this group was also substantially derived from local sources. Viable cyanobacteria isolated from the snow indicated free exchange between the snow and adjacent mat communities. Other sequences were most similar to those found outside the Canadian Arctic but were from snow, lake and sea ice, glaciers and permafrost, alpine regions, Antarctica, and other regions of the Arctic, supporting the concept of global distribution of microbial ecotypes throughout the cold biosphere.

Diversity and ecology of psychrophilic microorganisms

Cold environments represent the majority of the biosphere on Earth and have been successfully colonized by psychrophilic microorganisms that are able to thrive at low temperatures and to survive and even maintain metabolic activity at subzero temperatures. These microorganisms play key ecological roles in their habitats and include a wide diversity of representatives of all three domains (Bacteria, Archaea, Eukarya). In this review, we summarize recent knowledge on the abundance, on the taxonomic and functional biodiversity, on low temperature adaptation and on the biogeography of microbial communities in a range of aquatic and terrestrial cold environments.

Abundances and potential activities of nitrogen cycling microbial communities along a chronosequence of a glacier forefield

Glacier forefields are ideal ecosystems to study the development of nutrient cycles as well as single turnover processes during soil development. In this study, we examined the ecology of the microbial nitrogen (N) cycle in bulk soil samples from a chronosequence of the Damma glacier, Switzerland. Major processes of the N cycle were reconstructed on the genetic as well as the potential enzyme activity level at sites of the chronosequence that have been ice-free for 10, 50, 70, 120 and 2000 years. In our study, we focused on N fixation, mineralization (chitinolysis and proteolysis), nitrification and denitrification. Our results suggest that mineralization, mainly the decomposition of deposited organic material, was the main driver for N turnover in initial soils, that is, ice-free for 10 years. Transient soils being ice-free for 50 and 70 years were characterized by a high abundance of N fixing microorganisms. In developed soils, ice-free for 120 and 2000 years, significant rates of nitrification and denitrification were measured. Surprisingly, copy numbers of the respective functional genes encoding the corresponding enzymes were already high in the initial phase of soil development. This clearly indicates that the genetic potential is not the driver for certain functional traits in the initial phase of soil formation but rather a well-balanced expression of the respective genes coding for selected functions.