title: Bacterial community composition in relation to bedrock type and macrobiota in soils from the Sør Rondane Mountains, East Antarctica.
abstract: Antarctic soils are known to be oligotrophic and of having low buffering capacities. It is expected that this is particularly the case for inland high-altitude regions. We hypothesized that the bedrock type and the presence of macrobiota in these soils enforce a high selective pressure on their bacterial communities. To test this, we analyzed the bacterial community structure in 52 soil samples from the western Sør Rondane Mountains (Dronning Maud Land, East Antarctica), using the Illumina MiSeq platform in combination with ARISA fingerprinting. The samples were taken along broad environmental gradients in an area covering nearly 1000 km(2) Ordination and variation partitioning analyses revealed that the total organic carbon content was the most significant variable in structuring the bacterial communities, followed by pH, electric conductivity, bedrock type and the moisture content, while spatial distance was of relatively minor importance. Acidobacteria (Chloracidobacteria) and Actinobacteria (Actinomycetales) dominated gneiss derived mineral soil samples, while Proteobacteria (Sphingomonadaceae), Cyanobacteria, Armatimonadetes and candidate division FBP-dominated soil samples with a high total organic carbon content that were mainly situated on granite derived bedrock.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Microbiology, Department of Microbiology and Biochemistry, Ghent University, 9000 Ghent, Belgium bjorn.tytgat@ugent.be.
authors.forename: Bjorn
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Tytgat
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Protistology and Aquatic Ecology, Department of Biology, Ghent University, 9000 Ghent, Belgium.
authors.forename: Elie
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Verleyen
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Protistology and Aquatic Ecology, Department of Biology, Ghent University, 9000 Ghent, Belgium.
authors.forename: Maxime
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sweetlove
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Protistology and Aquatic Ecology, Department of Biology, Ghent University, 9000 Ghent, Belgium.
authors.forename: Sofie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: D'hondt
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Microbiology, Department of Microbiology and Biochemistry, Ghent University, 9000 Ghent, Belgium.
authors.forename: Pia
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Clercx
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Soil Science, Department of Geology and Soil Science, Ghent University, 9000 Ghent, Belgium.
authors.forename: Eric
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Van Ranst
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Microbiology, Department of Microbiology and Biochemistry, Ghent University, 9000 Ghent, Belgium.
authors.forename: Karolien
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Peeters
authors.affiliation: British Antarctic Survey, Natural Environment Research, Cambridge, CB3 0ET, UK.
authors.forename: Stephen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Roberts
authors.affiliation: Department of Biotechnology and Bioenergy, NRC 'Kurchatov Institute', Moscow, 123182, Russia Winogradsky Institute of Microbiology RAS, Moscow, 117312, Russia.
authors.forename: Zorigto
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Namsaraev
authors.affiliation: Centre for Protein Engineering, Department of Life Sciences, Liège University, 4000 Liège, Belgium.
authors.forename: Annick
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Wilmotte
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Protistology and Aquatic Ecology, Department of Biology, Ghent University, 9000 Ghent, Belgium.
authors.forename: Wim
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Vyverman
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Microbiology, Department of Microbiology and Biochemistry, Ghent University, 9000 Ghent, Belgium.
authors.forename: Anne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Willems
mesh_terms: D061271:Acidobacteria / Q000302:isolation & purification; D039903:Actinobacteria / Q000302:isolation & purification; D000864:Antarctic Regions; D001419:Bacteria / Q000145:classification / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D000458:Cyanobacteria / Q000302:isolation & purification; D020560:Proteobacteria / Q000302:isolation & purification; D012987:Soil / Q000737:chemistry; D012988:Soil Microbiology
chemical_list: D012987:Soil
keywords: 16S rRNA; Illumina; ice free; inland nunataks; terrestrial environment