@article{10902/32563,
year = {2023},
url = {https://hdl.handle.net/10902/32563},
abstract = {A major challenge in microbial ecology is to understand the principles and processes by which microbes associate and interact in community assemblages. Microbial communities in mountain glaciers are unique as first colonizers and nutrient enrichment drivers for downstream ecosystems. However, mountain glaciers have been distinctively sensitive to climate perturbations and have suffered a severe retreat over the past 40 years, compelling us to understand glacier ecosystems before their disappearance. This is the first study in an Andean glacier in Ecuador offering insights into the relationship of physicochemical variables and altitude on the diversity and structure of bacterial communities. Our study covered extreme Andean altitudes at the Cayambe Volcanic Complex, from 4,783 to 5,583 masl. Glacier soil and ice samples were used as the source for 16S rRNA gene amplicon libraries. We found (1) effects of altitude on diversity and community structure, (2) the presence of few significantly correlated nutrients to community structure, (3) sharp differences between glacier soil and glacier ice in diversity and community structure, where, as quantified by the Shannon γ-diversity distribution, the meta-community in glacier soil showed more diversity than in glacier ice; this pattern was related to the higher variability of the physicochemical distribution of variables in the former substrate, and (4) significantly abundant genera associated with either high or low altitudes that could serve as biomarkers for studies on climate change. Our results provide the first assessment of these unexplored communities, before their potential disappearance due to glacier retreat and climate change.},
organization = {Funding: This work was supported by The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS), through the TWAS Research Grants Programme, under grant 16-172 RG/BIO/LA_I, and the Belgium Academy of Research and Higher Education (ARES – Académie de Recherche et d’Enseignement Supérieur) under project ARES-07-15K, through the ARES-UCE funding program. We extend our gratitude to both funding institutions. Acknowledgments: This work was an initiative of the Ecuadorian Microbiome Project (EcuMP). The Institute for Integrative Systems Biology (I2SysBio) at the University of Valencia provided valuable assistance to this research. Author Pablo Monfort was supported by a Research Initiation Grant from the University of Valencia.},
publisher = {Frontiers in Microbiology, 2023, 14, 1154815},
title = {The microbiome of the ice-capped Cayambe Volcanic Complex in Ecuador},
author = {Díaz, Magdalena and Monfort-Lanzas, Pablo and Quiroz-Moreno, Cristian and Rivadeneira, Erika and Castillejo, Pablo and Arnau, Vicente and Díaz, Wladimiro and Agathos, Spiros N. and Sangari García, Félix Javier and Jarrín-V., Pablo and Molina, Alfonso},
}