title: Some Like it High! Phylogenetic Diversity of High-Elevation Cyanobacterial Community from Biological Soil Crusts of Western Himalaya.
abstract: The environment of high-altitudinal cold deserts of Western Himalaya is characterized by extensive development of biological soil crusts, with cyanobacteria as dominant component. The knowledge of their taxonomic composition and dependency on soil chemistry and elevation is still fragmentary. We studied the abundance and the phylogenetic diversity of the culturable cyanobacteria and eukaryotic microalgae in soil crusts along altitudinal gradients (4600-5900 m) at two sites in the dry mountains of Ladakh (SW Tibetan Plateau and Eastern Karakoram), using both microscopic and molecular approaches. The effects of environmental factors (altitude, mountain range, and soil physico-chemical parameters) on the composition and biovolume of phototrophs were tested by multivariate redundancy analysis and variance partitioning. Both phylogenetic diversity and composition of morphotypes were similar between Karakorum and Tibetan Plateau. Phylogenetic analysis of 16S rRNA gene revealed strains belonging to at least five genera. Besides clusters of common soil genera, e.g., Microcoleus, Nodosilinea, or Nostoc, two distinct clades of simple trichal taxa were newly discovered. The most abundant cyanobacterial orders were Oscillatoriales and Nostacales, whose biovolume increased with increasing elevation, while that of Chroococales decreased. Cyanobacterial species richness was low in that only 15 morphotypes were detected. The environmental factors accounted for 52 % of the total variability in microbial data, 38.7 % of which was explained solely by soil chemical properties, 14.5 % by altitude, and 8.4 % by mountain range. The elevation, soil phosphate, and magnesium were the most important predictors of soil phototrophic communities in both mountain ranges despite their different bedrocks and origin. The present investigation represents a first record on phylogenetic diversity of the cyanobacterial community of biological soil crusts from Western Himalayas and first record from altitudes over 5000 m.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, Branišovská 31, České Budějovice, 37005, Czech Republic. caapkova@gmail.com.|Institute of Botany, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Dukelská 135, Třeboň, 379 82, Czech Republic. caapkova@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Kateřina
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Čapková
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, Branišovská 31, České Budějovice, 37005, Czech Republic.|Institute of Botany, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Dukelská 135, Třeboň, 379 82, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Tomáš
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hauer
authors.affiliation: Institute of Botany, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Dukelská 135, Třeboň, 379 82, Czech Republic.|Institute of Hydrobiology, Biology Centre of AS CR, Na Sádkách 7, České Budějovice, 37005, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Klára
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Řeháková
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, Branišovská 31, České Budějovice, 37005, Czech Republic.|Institute of Botany, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Dukelská 135, Třeboň, 379 82, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Jiří
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Doležal
mesh_terms: D000531:Altitude; D001673:Biodegradation, Environmental; D044822:Biodiversity; D000458:Cyanobacteria / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000378:metabolism; D019015:Geologic Sediments / Q000032:analysis / Q000382:microbiology*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D012987:Soil / Q000737:chemistry; D012988:Soil Microbiology; D018609:Tibet
chemical_list: D012987:Soil
keywords: Cyanobacterial diversity; Desert; High-elevation; Phosphorus; Soil crusts; Western Himalayas