The soil beneath the arctic tundra is home to a greater diversity of microorganisms than nearby boreal forests according to researchers from British Columbia. They report their findings in the October 2005 issue of the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology.
Boreal forests (cold temperature forests found in the northern hemisphere) and arctic tundra cover 22% of the earth's terrestrial surface. These environments are very sensitive to climate change and variation in their productivity can substantially impact the global climate.
In the study soil samples were taken from three arctic tundra sites and three boreal forest locations and analyzed for bacterial diversity. Researchers found a broader range of microbial presence in undisturbed arctic tundra soil with the highest diversity identified in a sample from an extreme northern location.
"This report demonstrates that the Arctic serves as an unrecognized reservoir of microbial diversity and thus biochemical potential," say the researchers. "An appreciation of the magnitude of arctic microbial biodiversity is a critical foundation for studies of its ecological and industrial significance and an important first step toward gauging the impact of climate change on this poorly studied biome."
(J.D. Neufeld, W.W. Mohn. 2005. Unexpectedly high bacterial diversity in arctic tundra relative to boreal forest soils, revealed by serial analysis of ribosomal sequence tags. Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 71. 10: 5710-5718.)
Carrie Patterson
cpattersonasmusa
American Society for Microbiology
asm
Tips from the Journals of the American Society for Microbiology
Комментариев нет:
Отправить комментарий