@article {5023,
	title = {Soil biota sensitivity to hydroclimate variability in a polar desert ecosystem},
	journal = {Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research},
	volume = {57},
	year = {2025},
	month = {05/2025},
	abstract = {<p>An anomalous warm weather event in the Antarctic McMurdo Dry Valleys on 18 March 2022 created an opportunity to characterize soil biota communities most sensitive to freeze\&ndash;thaw stress. This event caused unseasonal melt within Taylor Valley, activating stream water and microbial mats around Canada Stream. Liquid water availability in this polar desert is a driver of soil biota distribution and activity. Because climate change impacts hydrological regimes, we aimed to determine the effect on soil communities. We sampled soils identified from this event that experienced thaw, nearby hyper-arid areas, and wetted areas that did not experience thaw to compare soil bacterial and invertebrate communities. Areas that exhibited evidence of freeze\&ndash;thaw supported the highest live and dead nematode counts and were composed of soil taxa from hyper-arid landscapes and wetted areas. They received water inputs from snowpacks, hyporheic water, or glacial melt, contributing to community differences associated with organic matter and salinity gradients. Inundated soils had higher organic matter and lower conductivity (p \&lt;\&nbsp;.02) and hosted the most diverse microbial and invertebrate communities on average. Our findings suggest that as liquid water becomes more available under predicted climate change, soil communities adapted to the hyper-arid landscape will shift toward diverse, wetted soil communities.</p>},
	keywords = {LTER-MCM, climate variation, extreme weather, McMurdo Dry Valleys, microbial community, soil invertebrates},
	issn = {1523-0430},
	doi = {10.1080/15230430.2025.2485283},
	url = {https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15230430.2025.2485283},
	author = {Snyder, Meredith D. and Adams, Byron J. and Borgmeier, Abigail and Jorna, Jesse and Power, Sarah N. and Salvatore, Mark R. and John E. Barrett}
}
@article {4989,
	title = {Response of a terrestrial polar ecosystem to the March 2022 Antarctic weather anomaly},
	journal = {Earth{\textquoteright}s Future},
	volume = {12},
	year = {2024},
	month = {08/2024},
	pages = {e2023EF004306},
	abstract = {<p>Record high temperatures were documented in the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica, on 18 March 2022, exceeding average temperatures for that day by nearly 30\&deg;C. Satellite imagery and stream gage measurements indicate that surface wetting coincided with this warming more than 2 months after peak summer thaw and likely exceeded thresholds for rehydration and activation of resident organisms that typically survive the cold and dry conditions of the polar fall in a freeze-dried state. This weather event is notable in both the timing and magnitude of the warming and wetting when temperatures exceeded 0\&deg;C at a time when biological communities and streams have typically entered a persistent frozen state. Such events may be a harbinger of future climate conditions characterized by warmer temperatures and greater thaw in this region of Antarctica, which could influence the distribution, activity, and abundance of sentinel taxa. Here we describe the ecosystem responses to this weather anomaly reporting on meteorological and hydrological measurements across the region and on later biological observations from Canada Stream, one of the most diverse and productive ecosystems within the McMurdo Dry Valleys.</p>},
	keywords = {LTER-MCM, atmospheric river, climate variability, extreme weather, polar desert, soil biota},
	issn = {2328-4277},
	doi = {10.1029/2023EF004306},
	url = {https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2023EF004306},
	author = {John E. Barrett and Adams, Byron J. and Doran, Peter T. and Hilary A. Dugan and Myers, Krista F. and Salvatore, Mark R. and Power, Sarah N. and Snyder, Meredith D. and Wright, Anna T. and Michael N. Gooseff}
}
