IMIS

Design description: 16S and 18S rRNA sequencing to profile the community composition of microbial communities (bacteria and Eukaryotes). The MICROBIAN project is aimed at studying the effects of climate change on the diversity and genetic -functional attributes (nutrient and carbon cycling) of inland Continental Antarctic microbiomes in soils. The scarce ice-free areas in Antarctica are among the most extreme terrestrial environments on Earth. Life in these places is dominated by microbes. As a consequence, foodwebs are strongly truncated, with few metazoans consuming organic matter and microbial biomass. Elucidating the factors that shape the biodiversity of these microbiomes and control their contribution to biogeochemical processes, provides the scientific basis for habitat mapping and classification, for developing conservation strategies, for guiding long-term monitoring efforts and for predicting their possible response to future environmental changes. In this respect, inland nunataks in East Antarctica, like the Sør Rondane Mountains, are far less well-studied than those in more coastal locations and in the McMurdo Dry Valleys. This is surprising given their long-term exposure and their potential role as ice-free refugia during Neogene and Pleistocene glacial maxima.