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Inorganic Species Distribution and Microbial Diversity within High Arctic Cryptoendolithic Habitats

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Abstract

Cryptoendolithic habitats in the Canadian high Arctic are associated with a variety of microbial community assemblages, including cyanobacteria, algae, and fungi. These habitats were analyzed for the presence of metal ions by sequential extraction and evaluated for relationships between these and the various microorganisms found at each site using multivariate statistical methods. Cyanobacteria-dominated communities exist under higher pH conditions with elevated concentrations of calcium and magnesium, whereas communities dominated by fungi and algae are characterized by lower pH conditions and higher concentrations of iron, aluminum, and silicon in the overlying surfaces. These results suggest that the activity of the dominant microorganisms controls the pH of the surrounding environment, which in turn dictates rates of weathering or the possibility for surface crust formation, both ultimately deciding the structure of microbial diversity for each cryptoendolithic habitat.

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Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank Canada’s Atmospheric Environment Service and the Polar Continental Shelf Project (PCSP manuscript no. 010-06) for lodging and logistical support during field seasons. This work is conducted under Nunavut Research Institute Scientific Research license no. 0201502N-M and is supported by Canada’s Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (F.G.F. and W.H.P.), ArcticNet (W.H.P.), the Ontario Graduate Scholarship Program, and the Northern Scientific Training Program (C.R.O.). The authors would like to thank Dr. Karen Nelson (editor), Dr. Christopher P. McKay, Dr. Derek Mueller and three anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments that improved the focus of the original manuscript, and we sincerely thank the staff of the Eureka Weather Station for their dedicated support and help throughout the duration of the research program.

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  1. Christopher R. Omelon

    Present address: Jackson School of Geosciences, 1 University Station, C-1100, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, 78712-0254, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Microbial Geochemistry Laboratory, Department of Geology, University of Toronto, 22 Russell Street, Toronto, Ontario, M5S-3B1, Canada

    Christopher R. Omelon & F. Grant Ferris

  2. Department of Geography, McGill University, 805 Sherbrooke Street West, Montréal, Quebec, H3A-2K6, Canada

    Wayne H. Pollard

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Correspondence to Christopher R. Omelon.

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Omelon, C.R., Pollard, W.H. & Ferris, F.G. Inorganic Species Distribution and Microbial Diversity within High Arctic Cryptoendolithic Habitats. Microb Ecol 54, 740–752 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00248-007-9235-0

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