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Prokaryotic diversity in sediments beneath two polar glaciers with contrasting organic carbon substrates

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Abstract

Microbial ecosystems beneath glaciers and ice sheets are thought to play an active role in regional and global carbon cycling. Subglacial sediments are assumed to be largely anoxic, and thus various pathways of organic carbon metabolism may occur here. We examine the abundance and diversity of prokaryotes in sediment beneath two glaciers (Lower Wright Glacier in Antarctica and Russell Glacier in Greenland) with different glaciation histories and thus with different organic carbon substrates. The total microbial abundance in the Lower Wright Glacier sediment, originating from young lacustrine sediment, was an order of magnitude higher (~8 × 106 cells per gram of wet sediment) than in Russell Glacier sediment (~9 × 105 cells g−1) that is of Holocene-aged soil origin. 4% of the microbes from the Russell Glacier sediment and 0.04–0.35% from Lower Wright Glacier were culturable at 10°C. The Lower Wright Glacier subglacial community was dominated by Proteobacteria, followed by Firmicutes. The Russell Glacier library was much less diverse and also dominated by Proteobacteria. Low numbers and diversity of both Euryarchaeota and Crenarchaeota were found in both sediments. The identified clones were related to bacteria with both aerobic and anaerobic metabolisms, indicating the presence of both oxic and anoxic conditions in the sediments.

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Acknowledgments

This research was funded by the UK Natural Environment Research Council (grant NE/E004016/1 to J.L.W.) and the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan (Post Doctoral Fellowship Phase II, Batch III, to F.H.). Sample collection in Antarctica was supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, and by Antarctica New Zealand. M.J.S. thanks Dr Sean Fitzsimons (University of Otago) for the opportunity to work in Antarctica, and assistance with sampling.

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Author notes

  1. Marek Stibal

    Present address: Department of Geochemistry, Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland, Øster Voldgade 10, 1350, Copenhagen K, Denmark

  2. Fariha Hasan

    Present address: Department of Microbiology, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, 45320, Pakistan

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Bristol Glaciology Centre, School of Geographical Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, BS8 1SS, UK

    Marek Stibal, Fariha Hasan, Jemma L. Wadham & Alexandre M. Anesio

  2. Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, T6G 2E3, Canada

    Martin J. Sharp

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  1. Marek Stibal
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Correspondence to Marek Stibal.

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Communicated by A. Oren.

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Stibal, M., Hasan, F., Wadham, J.L. et al. Prokaryotic diversity in sediments beneath two polar glaciers with contrasting organic carbon substrates. Extremophiles 16, 255–265 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00792-011-0426-8

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