@article {5024,
	title = {Microbial mat activity and soil biogeochemistry across variable phosphorus availability in Taylor Valley, Antarctica},
	journal = {Antarctic Science},
	year = {2025},
	month = {05/2025},
	abstract = {<p>Primary production is fundamental to ecosystems, and in many extreme environments production is facilitated by microbial mats. Microbial mats are complex assemblages of photo- and heterotrophic microorganisms colonizing sediment and soil surfaces. These communities are the dominant producers of the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica, where they occupy lentic and lotic environments as well as intermittently wet soils. While the influence of microbial mats on stream nutrient dynamics and lake organic matter cycling is well documented, the influence of microbial mats on underlying soil is less well understood, particularly the effects of microbial mat nitrogen and carbon fixation. Taylor Valley soils occur across variable levels of inorganic phosphorus availability, with the Ross Sea drift containing four times that of the Taylor drifts, providing opportunities to examine how soil geochemistry influences microbial mats and the ecological functions they regulate. We found that inorganic phosphorus availability is positively correlated with microbial mat biomass, pigment concentration and nitrogen fixation potential. Additionally, our results demonstrate that dense microbial mats influence the ecological functioning of underlying soils by enriching organic carbon and total nitrogen stocks (two times higher). This work contributes to ongoing questions regarding the sources of energy fuelling soil food webs and the regional carbon balance in the McMurdo Dry Valleys.</p>},
	keywords = {LTER-MCM, carbon, cyanobacteria, nitrogen fixation, phosphorus, pigments, soil ecology},
	issn = {0954-1020},
	doi = {10.1017/S0954102025000094},
	url = {https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antarctic-science/article/microbial-mat-activity-and-soil-biogeochemistry-across-variable-phosphorus-availability-in-taylor-valley-antarctica/0655E2F09B8D6961618B8F396BA692F2},
	author = {Power, Sarah N. and Osburn, Ernest D. and John E. Barrett}
}
@article {4940,
	title = {McMurdo Dry Valley lake edge {\textquoteleft}moats{\textquoteright}: The ecological intersection between terrestrial and aquatic polar desert habitat},
	journal = {Antarctic Science},
	year = {2024},
	month = {04/2024},
	pages = {1 - 17},
	abstract = {<p>Aquatic ecosystems - lakes, ponds and streams - are hotspots of biodiversity in the cold and arid environment of Continental Antarctica. Environmental change is expected to increasingly alter Antarctic aquatic ecosystems and modify the physical characteristics and interactions within the habitats that they support. Here, we describe physical and biological features of the peripheral \&lsquo;moat\&rsquo; of a closed-basin Antarctic lake. These moats mediate connectivity amongst streams, lake and soils. We highlight the cyclical moat transition from a frozen winter state to an active open-water summer system, through refreeze as winter returns. Summer melting begins at the lakebed, initially creating an ice-constrained lens of liquid water in November, which swiftly progresses upwards, creating open water in December. Conversely, freezing progresses slowly from the water surface downwards, with water at 1 m bottom depth remaining liquid until May. Moats support productive, diverse benthic communities that are taxonomically distinct from those under the adjacent permanent lake ice. We show how ion ratios suggest that summer exchange occurs amongst moats, streams, soils and sub-ice lake water, perhaps facilitated by within-moat density-driven convection. Moats occupy a small but dynamic area of lake habitat, are disproportionately affected by recent lake-level rises and may thus be particularly vulnerable to hydrological change.</p>},
	keywords = {LTER-MCM, connectivity, ecosystem, ice, microbial mats, transition},
	issn = {0954-1020},
	doi = {10.1017/S0954102024000087},
	url = {https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antarctic-science/article/mcmurdo-dry-valley-lake-edge-moats-the-ecological-intersection-between-terrestrial-and-aquatic-polar-desert-habitats/31D94DD51E651603482A3AE6E8A52A57},
	author = {Stone, Michael S. and Devlin, Shawn and Ian Hawes and Kathleen A. Welch and Michael N. Gooseff and Cristina D. Takacs-Vesbach and Rachael M. Morgan-Kiss and Byron Adams and John E. Barrett and John C. Priscu and Peter T. Doran}
}
@article {3952,
	title = {Microbial Community Responses to Increased Water and Organic Matter in the Arid Soils of the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica},
	journal = {Frontiers in Microbiology},
	volume = {7},
	year = {2016},
	month = {07/2016},
	chapter = {1040},
	keywords = {LTER-MCM},
	doi = {10.3389/fmicb.2016.01040},
	url = {http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fmicb.2016.01040},
	author = {Heather N. Buelow and Winter, Ara S. and David J. Van Horn and John E. Barrett and Michael N. Gooseff and Schwartz, Egbert and Cristina D. Takacs-Vesbach}
}
@article {1232,
	title = {Microbial community composition in soils of Northern Victoria Land, Antarctica},
	journal = {Environmental Microbiology},
	volume = {10},
	year = {2008},
	pages = {1713-1724},
	keywords = {LTER-MCM},
	doi = {LTER},
	author = {Niederberger, T and McDonald, i and Hacker, A and Soo, R and John E. Barrett and Diana H. Wall and Craig S Cary}
}
