PRJNA228947
Antarctic soil watering experiment across a natural salinity gradient
The McMurdo Dry Valleys (MDV) are a microbially dominated, extreme ecosystem currently undergoing climate change induced disturbances including the melting of massive buried ice, cutting through permafrost by streams, and warming events. These processes are increasing moisture across the landscape altering conditions for soil communities by mobilizing nutrients and salts and stimulating autotrophic carbon inputs to soils. The goal of this study was to determine the effects of resource addition (water/organic matter) on the composition (16S rRNA genes) and function of microbial communities in the MDV along a natural salinity gradient representing an additional gradient of stress in an already extreme environment.