Intra‐ and inter‐cores fungal diversity suggests interconnection of different habitats in an Antarctic frozen lake (Boulder Clay, Northern Victoria Land)

Abstract

Summary A perennially frozen lake at Boulder Clay site (Victoria Land, Antarctica), characterized by the presence of frost mounds, have been selected as an in situ model for ecological studies. Different samples of permafrost, glacier ice and brines have been studied as a unique habitat system. An additional sample of brines (collected in another frozen lake close to the previous one) was also considered. Alpha‐ and beta‐diversity of fungal communities showed both intra‐ and inter‐cores significant (p < 0.05) differences, which suggest the presence of interconnection among the habitats. Therefore, the layers of frost mound and the deep glacier could be interconnected while the brines could probably be considered as an open habitat system not interconnected with each other. Moreover, the absence of similarity between the lake ice and the underlying permafrost suggested that the lake is perennially frozen based. The predominance of positive significant (p < 0.05) co‐occurrences among some fungal taxa allowed to postulate the existence of an ecological equilibrium in the habitats systems. The positive significant (p < 0.05) correlation between salt concentration, total organic carbon and pH, and some fungal taxa suggests that a few abiotic parameters could drive fungal diversity inside these ecological niches.

Prokaryotic Diversity and Metabolically Active Communities in Brines from Two Perennially Ice-Covered Antarctic Lakes

“…As for Arctic cryopegs and brines from other Antarctic lakes, BC brines are characterized by permanently subzero temperatures, high salinity, and moderate isolation from the influence of external factors. Such mineral-enriched brines (Sannino et al, 2020) represent a model for indirectly investigating putative life-forms in free-water environments on extraterrestrial icy worlds. The potential analogue with other extraterrestrial environments could be related, at least in the case of BC1 brine, due to its chemical composition (Sannino et al, 2020).…”

“…Such mineral-enriched brines (Sannino et al, 2020) represent a model for indirectly investigating putative life-forms in free-water environments on extraterrestrial icy worlds. The potential analogue with other extraterrestrial environments could be related, at least in the case of BC1 brine, due to its chemical composition (Sannino et al, 2020). In fact, here chlorides are more abundant than sulfates, allowing a similarity with Enceladus (Postberg et al, 2011) and Mars brines (e.g., Knauth and Burt, 2002), even if the mechanism of deliquescence evocated for the latter cannot be considered here.…”

First Insights into the Microbiology of Three Antarctic Briny Systems of the Northern Victoria Land

“…These brine pockets were separated by a thick ice layer of 12 cm [10]. Samples BC1 and BC2 were collected from two different sampling points (at 2.5 and 0.9 m depth, respectively) at Lake 16 in BC, whilst sample BC3 (depth 2.0 m) was collected from the adjacent Lake L-2 [14]. Sampling was carried out using presterilized polycarbonate bottles, sterilized peristaltic pump, and tubing.…”

“…The microbiological and physicochemical results previously obtained on BC and TF lake brines, and used in this study, are summarized in Supplementary Material Table S1. Briefly, trace elements (Table S1) were analyzed by inductively coupled plasma sector field mass spectrometry (ICP-SFMS) [3,11,14]. Anions (Table S1) were analyzed by ion chromatography [3,14].…”

The Spatio-Temporal Variability of Frost Blisters in a Perennial Frozen Lake along the Antarctic Coast as Indicator of the Groundwater Supply

“…In this paper we focus on one of the perennially frozen lakes studied by Guglielmin et al [10] and recently investigated also regarding its microbiological ecosystems [39,40]. In particular, we quantify the temporal variation of the two frost blisters occurring in this lake and the spatio-temporal variations (i.e., sublimation and accretion) of the ice surface in order to assess the origin of the water supply that is responsible of the lake-system dynamic.…”