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The short-term effects of surface soil disturbance on soil bacterial community structure at an experimental site near Scott Base, Antarctica

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Abstract

Humans are visiting Antarctica in increasing numbers, and the ecological effect of rapid soil habitat alteration due to human-induced physical disturbance is not well understood. An experimental soil disturbance trial was set up near Scott Base on Ross Island, to investigate the immediate and short-term changes to bacterial community structure, following surface soil disturbance. Three blocks, each comprising an undisturbed control, and an area disturbed by removing the top 2 cm of soil, were sampled over a time series (0, 7, 14, 21, and 35 days), to investigate changes to bacterial community structure using DNA profiling by terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism. The simulated disturbance did not cause any major shifts in the structure of the bacterial communities over the 35-day sampling period. Ordination showed that the bacterial community composition correlated strongly with soil EC (R 2 = 0.55) and soil pH (R 2 = 0.67), rather than the removal of the top 2 cm of surface material. Although the replicate blocks were visually indistinguishable from one another, high local spatial variability of soil chemical properties was found at the study site and different populations of bacterial communities occurred within 2 m of one another, within the same landscape unit. Given the current knowledge of the drivers of bacterial community structure, that is, soil EC, soil pH, and soil moisture content, a follow-up investigation incorporating DNA and RNA-based analyses over a time frame of 2–3 years would lead to a greater understanding of the effects of soil disturbance on bacterial communities.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by Landcare Research and the Murray Jessen Memorial Doctoral scholarship. We thank Antarctica New Zealand for logistic support over the summers of 2008/2009 and 2009/2010. Many thanks to Errol Balks for field assistance, Margaret Auger for science support at Scott Base and David Hunter for technical assistance. The authors thank three anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Earth and Ocean Sciences, University of Waikato, Private Bag 3105, Hamilton, New Zealand

    Tanya O’Neill & Megan Balks

  2. Landcare Research, Manaaki Whenua, Private Bag 3127, Hamilton, New Zealand

    Bryan Stevenson, Jackie Aislabie & Pip Rhodes

  3. Faculty of Sciences, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, 28049, Madrid, Spain

    Jerónimo López-Martínez

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  1. Tanya O’Neill
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  2. Megan Balks
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  4. Jerónimo López-Martínez
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Correspondence to Tanya O’Neill.

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O’Neill, T., Balks, M., Stevenson, B. et al. The short-term effects of surface soil disturbance on soil bacterial community structure at an experimental site near Scott Base, Antarctica. Polar Biol 36, 985–996 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-013-1322-8

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