Microbial sequences retrieved from environmental samples from seasonal Arctic snow and meltwater from Svalbard, Norway

Abstract

16S rRNA gene (rrs) clone libraries were constructed from two snow samples (May 11, 2007 and June 7, 2007) and two meltwater samples collected during the spring of 2007 in Svalbard, Norway (79 degrees N). The libraries covered 19 different microbial classes, including Betaproteobacteria (21.3%), Sphingobacteria (16.4%), Flavobacteria (9.0%), Acidobacteria (7.7%) and Alphaproteobacteria (6.5%). Significant differences were detected between the two sets of sample libraries. First, the meltwater libraries had the highest community richness (Chao1: 103.2 and 152.2) and Shannon biodiversity indices (between 3.38 and 3.59), when compared with the snow libraries (Chao1: 14.8 and 59.7; Shannon index: 1.93 and 3.01). Second, integral-LIBSHUFF analyses determined that the bacterial communities in the snow libraries were significantly different from those of the meltwater libraries. Despite these differences, our data also support the theory that a common core group of microbial populations exist within a variety of cryohabitats. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00792-009-0299-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

The dynamic bacterial communities of a melting High Arctic glacier snowpack

“…In summary, in the five days between Day 1 and Day 2 sampling points, a considerable shift occurred in the structure of bacterial communities within Larsbreen's snowpack. Although seasonal influences on the composition of 16S rRNA gene clone libraries from snow have been reported previously, including on High Arctic glaciers (Larose et al, 2010), the results presented herein illustrate a considerable capacity for even rapid change in the bacterial communities associated with snowpacks, thus underlining a role for snow as a dynamic habitat for active microbial communities.…”

“…The presence of a diverse microbial community associated with snow environments found all over the world, including the High Arctic, is increasingly recognized (Carpenter et al, 2000;Amato et al, 2007;Xiang et al, 2009a;Larose et al, 2010;Chuvochina et al, 2011;Harding et al, 2011). Although the potential for depositional and postdepositional processes to influence the structure of these microbial communities is proposed (Xiang et al, 2009b), our understanding of the scale of spatial and temporal variation of snow community composition is limited, in spite of the extensive global areal extent of snow cover.…”

“…In Svalbard, snow bacterial abundances of about 2 Â 10 4 cells ml À 1 and the cultivation of Alphaproteobacteria, Betaproteobacteria, Gammaproteobacteria, Firmicutes and Actinobacteria has been described (Amato et al, 2007). Previous clone library studies of High Arctic snow have identified the predominance of Betaproteobacteria in snowpacks containing 19 different classes of bacteria (Larose et al, 2010) and six different phyla (Harding et al, 2011). The sequences retrieved were typically related to other sequences from cold environments, although the potential for spatial and temporal variation in snowpack microbial diversity at fine scales of resolution were less well explored.…”

Microbial Cell Retention in a Melting High Arctic Snowpack, Svalbard

“…As the snowpack is inhabited also by active cells (Sattler et al, 2001(Sattler et al, , 2002, it is crucial to reveal possible effects on the release or retention of cells in relation to dissolved chemical solutes, which are either a potential substrate for metabolism or necessary as nitrogen source (e.g., NH 4 + , NO 3 -). A previous study of Arctic snow and meltwater indicates that there is a change in the snow microbial diversity between early and late spring, with a higher diversity in the meltwater than in the snow (Larose et al, 2010a). This insight is strengthened by evidence for bacterial post-depositional processes within high alpine snow (Xiang et al, 2009).…”

“…The elution of chemical solutes, including nutrients, then affects both the microbial habitats within the snow (Hodson, 2006;Larose et al, 2010a), and underlying soils and ice layers (Jones, 1991(Jones, , 1999Schmidt et al, 1999;Edwards et al, 2007), but also ecosystems downstream (e.g., Gagne et al, 2009).…”