@article {4926, title = {Long days and long nights: An integrative study reveals survival strategies of an Antarctic diatom during the cold and dark polar winter}, journal = {New Phytologist}, year = {2024}, month = {01/2024}, abstract = {

The vast majority of photosynthetic organisms on Earth have evolved under a circadian cycle, with many cellular processes being regulated by the predictable patterns of day and night. Polar algal species living in Arctic and Antarctic aquatic habitats are faced with bizarre light environments of continuous light during the short summer months and 24-h darkness during the winter, that is one long day transitioning into one long, cold night. It is well known that polar phytoplankton survive the winter and return in the summer to form blooms. In an article recently published in New Phytologist, Joli et al. (2023, doi: 10.1111/nph.19387) use an integrative approach to dissect how an Antarctic marine diatom not only survives the long, dark polar winter, but also recovers rapidly upon the onset of summer.

}, keywords = {LTER-MCM, aquatic habitats, circadian cycle, light environments, phytoplankton, polar}, issn = {0028-646X}, doi = {10.1111/nph.19536}, url = {https://nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/nph.19536}, author = {Rachael M. Morgan-Kiss} } @thesis {4835, title = {Effect of climate history on the genetic structure of an Antarctic soil nematode}, volume = {MS}, year = {2022}, month = {12/2022}, school = {Brigham Young University}, type = {Master{\textquoteright}s thesis}, address = {Provo, UT, USA}, abstract = {

Historical climate disturbances such as glacial cycling and fluctuating stream, lake, and sea levels strongly influence the distribution and evolutionary trajectories of Antarctic terrestrial species. Antarctic invertebrates, with limited long-range mobility, including the ubiquitous sentinel nematode species Scottnema lindsayae, are especially sensitive to climate disturbances. We tested hypotheses associated with the historical geographic and population genetic structure of this species as it occurs across the McMurdo Dry Valleys (MDVs) of Antarctica. In order to reconstruct the influence of climate disturbance and ecological conditions on this species, partial mitochondrial COI gene sequences were sequenced and analyzed from individual S. lindsayae collected from sites across the MDVs reflecting a opposing gradients of climate disturbance during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). We found that populations were strongly geomorphic barriers with distinct haplotypes associated with valleys except among valleys that experienced glacial advance and retreat during the LGM. One monophyletic clade corresponds with valley systems that were undisturbed during the LGM indicating putative refugia areas. A second monophyletic clade corresponds to recent dispersal and expansion of evolutionarily younger populations into valleys that were strongly reworked by glacial activity during the LGM. Our work shows that contemporary populations of these animals are strongly structured by prior climate history. Such findings can be useful for interpreting long-term monitoring of demographic shifts of soil organisms in response to changing climate trends in the McMurdo Dry Valleys.

}, keywords = {LTER-MCM, Antarctica, biogeography, climate disturbance, evolution, McMurdo Dry Valleys, polar, population genetics}, url = {http://hdl.lib.byu.edu/1877/etd12622}, author = {Jackson, Abigail C.}, editor = {Adams, Byron J.} } @article {4334, title = {Biotic interactions in experimental Antarctic soil microcosms vary with abiotic stress}, journal = {Soil Systems}, volume = {3}, year = {2019}, month = {08/2019}, abstract = {

Biotic interactions structure ecological communities but abiotic factors affect the strength of these relationships. These interactions are difficult to study in soils due to their vast biodiversity and the many environmental factors that affect soil species. The McMurdo Dry Valleys (MDV), Antarctica, are relatively simple soil ecosystems compared to temperate soils, making them an excellent study system for the trophic relationships of soil. Soil microbes and relatively few species of nematodes, rotifers, tardigrades, springtails, and mites are patchily distributed across the cold, dry landscape, which lacks vascular plants and terrestrial vertebrates. However, glacier and permafrost melt are expected to cause shifts in soil moisture and solutes across this ecosystem. To test how increased moisture and salinity affect soil invertebrates and their biotic interactions, we established a laboratory microcosm experiment (4 community \× 2 moisture \× 2 salinity treatments). Community treatments were: (1) Bacteria only (control), (2) Scottnema (S. lindsayae + bacteria), (3) Eudorylaimus (E. antarcticus + bacteria), and (4) Mixed (S. lindsayae + E. antarcticus + bacteria). Salinity and moisture treatments were control and high. High moisture reduced S. lindsayae adults, while high salinity reduced the total S. lindsayae population. We found that S. lindsayae exerted top-down control over soil bacteria populations, but this effect was dependent on salinity treatment. In the high salinity treatment, bacteria were released from top-down pressure as S. lindsayae declined. Ours was the first study to empirically demonstrate, although in lab microcosm conditions, top-down control in the MDV soil food web.

}, keywords = {LTER-MCM, bacteria, biological interactions, desert, nematode, polar, soil communities, top-down effects, trophic interactions}, doi = {10.3390/soilsystems3030057}, url = {https://www.mdpi.com/2571-8789/3/3/57}, author = {Shaw, E. Ashley and Diana H. Wall} }