02591nas a2200193 4500008004100000245013100041210006900172260001200241300001100253490000700264520191200271100002202183700002402205700002402229700003302253700002402286700001702310856007002327 2016 eng d00aNutrient treatments alter microbial mat colonization in two glacial meltwater streams from the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica0 aNutrient treatments alter microbial mat colonization in two glac c03/2016 afiw0490 v923 a

Microbial mats are abundant in many alpine and polar aquatic ecosystems. With warmer temperatures, new hydrologic pathways are developing in these regions and increasing dissolved nutrient fluxes. In the McMurdo Dry Valleys, thermokarsting may release both nutrients and sediment, and has the potential to influence mats in glacial meltwater streams. To test the role of nutrient inputs on community structure, we created nutrient diffusing substrata (NDS) with agar enriched in N, P and N + P, with controls, and deployed them into two Dry Valley streams. We found N amendments (N and N + P) to have greater chlorophyll-a concentrations, total algal biovolume, more fine filamentous cyanobacteria and a higher proportion of live diatoms than other treatments. Furthermore, N treatments were substantially elevated in Bacteroidetes and the small diatom, Fistulifera pelliculosa. On the other hand, species richness was almost double in P and N + P treatments over others, and coccoid green algae and Proteobacteria were more abundant in both streams. Collectively, these data suggest that nutrients have the potential to stimulate growth and alter community structure in glacial meltwater stream microbial mats, and the recent erosion of permafrost and accelerated glacial melt will likely impact resident biota in polar lotic systems here and elsewhere.

1 aKohler, Tyler, J.1 aVan Horn, David, J.1 aDarling, Joshua, P.1 aTakacs-Vesbach, Cristina, D.1 aMcKnight, Diane, M.1 aWagner, Dirk uhttp://femsec.oxfordjournals.org/lookup/doi/10.1093/femsec/fiw049