title: Highly heterogeneous soil bacterial communities around Terra Nova Bay of Northern Victoria Land, Antarctica.
abstract: Given the diminished role of biotic interactions in soils of continental Antarctica, abiotic factors are believed to play a dominant role in structuring of microbial communities. However, many ice-free regions remain unexplored, and it is unclear which environmental gradients are primarily responsible for the variations among bacterial communities. In this study, we investigated the soil bacterial community around Terra Nova Bay of Victoria Land by pyrosequencing and determined which environmental variables govern the bacterial community structure at the local scale. Six bacterial phyla, Actinobacteria, Proteobacteria, Acidobacteria, Chloroflexi, Cyanobacteria, and Bacteroidetes, were dominant, but their relative abundance varied greatly across locations. Bacterial community structures were affected little by spatial distance, but structured more strongly by site, which was in accordance with the soil physicochemical compositions. At both the phylum and species levels, bacterial community structure was explained primarily by pH and water content, while certain earth elements and trace metals also played important roles in shaping community variation. The higher heterogeneity of the bacterial community structure found at this site indicates how soil bacterial communities have adapted to different compositions of edaphic variables under extreme environmental conditions. Taken together, these findings greatly advance our understanding of the adaption of soil bacterial populations to this harsh environment.
authors: Arctic Research Center, Korea Polar Research Institute, Incheon, Republic of Korea.
authors: Mincheol
authors: M
authors: Kim
authors: Division of Life Sciences, Korea Polar Research Institute, Incheon, Republic of Korea; Department of Environmental Science, Kangwon National University, Chuncheon, Republic of Korea.
authors: Ahnna
authors: A
authors: Cho
authors: Department of Geological Sciences, Pusan National University, Busan, Republic of Korea.
authors: Hyoun Soo
authors: HS
authors: Lim
authors: Division of Life Sciences, Korea Polar Research Institute, Incheon, Republic of Korea.
authors: Soon Gyu
authors: SG
authors: Hong
authors: Department of New Antarctic Station, Korea Polar Research Institute, Incheon, Republic of Korea.
authors: Ji Hee
authors: JH
authors: Kim
authors: Department of New Antarctic Station, Korea Polar Research Institute, Incheon, Republic of Korea.
authors: Joohan
authors: J
authors: Lee
authors: Division of Climate Change, Korea Polar Research Institute, Incheon, Republic of Korea.
authors: Taejin
authors: T
authors: Choi
authors: Department of Environmental Science, Kangwon National University, Chuncheon, Republic of Korea.
authors: Tae Seok
authors: TS
authors: Ahn
authors: Division of Life Sciences, Korea Polar Research Institute, Incheon, Republic of Korea.
authors: Ok-Sun
authors: OS
authors: Kim
mesh_terms: D000864:Antarctic Regions; D001419:Bacteria / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics; D044822:Biodiversity; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics; D014644:Genetic Variation; D010802:Phylogeny; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S / Q000235:genetics; D012623:Seawater / Q000382:microbiology*; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA / Q000379:methods; D012987:Soil / Q000737:chemistry*; D012988:Soil Microbiology
chemical_list: D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S; D012987:Soil