Bacterial Activity in South Pole Snow

Large populations (200 to 5,000 cells ml⁻¹ in snowmelt) of bacteria were present in surface snow and firn from the south pole sampled in January 1999 and 2000. DNA isolated from this snow yielded ribosomal DNA sequences similar to those of several psychrophilic bacteria and a bacterium which aligns closely with members of the genus Deinococcus, an ionizing-radiation- and desiccation-resistant genus. We also obtained evidence of low rates of bacterial DNA and protein synthesis which indicates that the organisms were metabolizing at ambient subzero temperatures (−12 to −17°C).     

Bacterial diversity in snow on North Pole ice floes

The microbial abundance and diversity in snow on ice floes at three sites near the North Pole was assessed using quantitative PCR and 454 pyrosequencing. Abundance of 16S rRNA genes in the samples ranged between 43 and 248 gene copies per millilitre of melted snow. A total of 291,331 sequences were obtained through 454 pyrosequencing of 16S rRNA genes, resulting in 984 OTUs at 97 % identity. Two sites were dominated by Cyanobacteria (72 and 61 %, respectively), including chloroplasts. The third site differed by consisting of 95 % Proteobacteria. Principal component analysis showed that the three sites clustered together when compared to the underlying environments of sea ice and ocean water. The Shannon indices ranged from 2.226 to 3.758, and the Chao1 indices showed species richness between 293 and 353 for the three samples. The relatively low abundances and diversity found in the samples indicate a lower rate of microbial input to this snow habitat compared to snow in the proximity of terrestrial and anthropogenic sources of microorganisms. The differences in species composition and diversity between the sites show that apparently similar snow habitats contain a large variation in biodiversity, although the differences were smaller than the differences to the underlying environment. The results support the idea that a globally distributed community exists in snow and that the global snow community can in part be attributed to microbial input from the atmosphere.     

Bacterial diversity in the snow over Tibetan Plateau Glaciers

Bacterial diversity and cell abundance in the snow of the four glaciers (Guoqu, Zadang, East Rongbuk and Palong No. 4) located in different climatic zones of the Tibetan Plateau were investigated through culture-independent molecular analysis of 16S rRNA gene clone library and flow cytometry approaches. Cell abundance ranged from 0.68 × 10³ to 720 × 10³ cells mL⁻¹, with higher values in the northern glaciers than in the southern ones. Bacterial diversity was unexpectedly high in the snow habitats of the world’s highest plateau, with 15 common genera distributed widely among the glaciers. The bacterial diversity in the snow at different glaciers was related to the surrounding environments. The Guoqu Glacier, to the north near the desert zone and with the lowest temperature, preserved more bacteria closely related to a cold environment and soil than the other glaciers. However, in the Palong No. 4 Glacier located in the south warm region around vegetation, most bacteria were phylogenetically related to plant-associated bacteria.     

冰海观鲸——笔走南极(六)

尽管我国有一万八千多公里长的海岸线,但地球上有史以来最大的动物——鲸,却很少有“擦边”游弋的情况发生。使得国人对这庞然大物的印象,只能散见于电视画面或欧洲某海滩鲸的集体自杀,又或是南美某沿海国家的众多善良人士对搁浅在浅水沙滩的鲸的救助。我原想这辈子见到实物鲸,是不可能了。想不到前些年我乘一艘名为“极地”号的抗冰船在南极冰区航行时,竟然有幸频频与其碰面,留下了难以忘记的印象。     

Invertebrate activity under snow in deciduous woods

Pitfall traps caught large numbers of representatives of 44 families of invertebrates just before snow fall and under the snow. Some groups of ectotherms were most active in late autumn and late winter, the activity of some increased throughout the winter and some showed no major change although subnivean temperatures were usually near 0°C. The most commonly trapped groups were: phalangids, collembolans, diplopods, coleopterans, dipterans, arachnids, gastropods and chilopods.     

Bacterial characterization of the snow cover at Spitzberg, Svalbard

A sampling campaign was organized during spring 2004 in Spitzberg, Svalbard, in the area around the scientific base of Ny-Alesund, to characterize the snow pack bacterial population. Total bacteria counts were established by 4',6-diamino-2-phenylindole (DAPI) in the seasonal snow pack bordering the sea. On the sea shore, bacterial concentration was about 6 x 10(4) cells mL(-1), without any significant variation according to depth. In the accumulation snow layer of the glacier, concentrations were about 2 x 10(4 )cells mL(-1), except in the 2003 summer layer, where it reached 2 x 10(5) cells mL(-1), as the result of cell multiplication allowed by higher temperature and snow melting. Strains isolated from the seasonal snow pack were identified from their 16S rRNA gene sequences, and lodged in GenBank. They belong to the Alphaproteobacteria, Betaproteobacteria and Gammaproteobacteria, Firmicutes and Actinobacteria. They are closely related to cold environment bacteria, as revealed by phylogenetic tree constructions, and two appear to be of unknown affiliation. Using 1H nuclear magnetic resonance, it was shown that these isolates have the capacity to degrade organic compounds found in Arctic snow (propionate, acetate and formate), and this can allow them to develop when snow melts, and thus to be actively involved in snow chemistry.     

南极升起不落的太阳——笔走南极(四)

《草原上升起不落的太阳》、《太阳,太阳永不落》,这些韵律优美、想象丰富、歌颂新生活的歌曲,充满了对太阳的深情和挚爱。但是,在现实生活中,倘若太阳真的没了东起西落,没了昼与夜的交替,时时悬在空中,成了不落的太阳,人们也是难以适应的。经历过南极及昼生活之后,我对此有了深刻的体会。     

Distribution of Bacterial Contaminants in a South African Lager Brewery

Bacteria isolated from contaminated pitching yeast, fermenting wort and beer samples from a South African lager brewery over a one-year period were tentatively identified by an improved, rapid diagnostic procedure as pediococci (41%), homofermentative lactobacilli (5%), heterofermentative lactobacilli (9%), Acetobacter spp. (7%), Gluconobacter spp. (13%) and Hafnia protea (25%). Pediococci and lactobacilli dominated samples taken from fermentation, storage and 'bright' beer tanks but were absent from pitched wort samples, from collection vessels and the single pitching yeast sample investigated. Acetic acid bacteria and H. protea were widely distributed in collection vessel, fermentation and storage tank samples, and H. protea was isolated from recycled pitching yeast.     

Prey preference of snow leopard (Panthera uncia) in South Gobi, Mongolia

Accurate information about the diet of large carnivores that are elusive and inhabit inaccessible terrain, is required to properly design conservation strategies. Predation on livestock and retaliatory killing of predators have become serious issues throughout the range of the snow leopard. Several feeding ecology studies of snow leopards have been conducted using classical approaches. These techniques have inherent limitations in their ability to properly identify both snow leopard feces and prey taxa. To examine the frequency of livestock prey and nearly-threatened argali in the diet of the snow leopard, we employed the recently developed DNA-based diet approach to study a snow leopard population located in the Tost Mountains, South Gobi, Mongolia. After DNA was extracted from the feces, a region of ～100 bp long from mitochondrial 12S rRNA gene was amplified, making use of universal primers for vertebrates and a blocking oligonucleotide specific to snow leopard DNA. The amplicons were then sequenced using a next-generation sequencing platform. We observed a total of five different prey items from 81 fecal samples. Siberian ibex predominated the diet (in 70.4% of the feces), followed by domestic goat (17.3%) and argali sheep (8.6%). The major part of the diet was comprised of large ungulates (in 98.8% of the feces) including wild ungulates (79%) and domestic livestock (19.7%). The findings of the present study will help to understand the feeding ecology of the snow leopard, as well as to address the conservation and management issues pertaining to this wild cat.     

中国南海海域海洋深层水细菌多样性

中国南海与作为海洋生物多样性中心的印太珊瑚大三角区具有一定的环境与生物连通性,其生境多样,为各种生物类群提供了有利的热带和亚热带海洋环境栖息地,具有极其丰富的生物多样性,是中国海洋生物多样性热点地区,也是重要的海洋生物多样性资源宝库。海洋细菌在生态系统循环中发挥重要作用,通过对南海海洋深层水细菌的探测,可以更加清晰地了解西太平洋和印太交汇区的生物多样性。研究基于参加开放项目获得的南海的深海站点水样,采用高通量测序进行了16S rRNA基因序列测序,分析了南海深海海水细菌群落多样性、菌群构成和多样性特征。该站点南海海洋深层水测定的细菌分属于15门、20纲、24目、86科、140属、150种,表明该区海洋深层水细菌群落丰富。测得优势菌属包括类芽胞杆菌属(Paenibacillus)、芽孢杆菌属(Bacillus)、海旋菌属(Thalassospira)、噬甲基菌属(Methylophaga)、拟杆菌属(Bacteroides)、纤细芽胞杆菌属(Gracilibacillus)、海洋芽胞杆菌属(Oceanobacillus)、海源菌属(Idiomarina)、嗜油菌属(Oleiphilus)、食碱菌属(Alcanivorax),这些属的细菌在生物材料或药物、生物燃料、水处理、降解石油烃等方面均有开发利用的潜力。属内的解淀粉芽孢杆菌(Lentibacillus amyloliquefaciens)、施氏假单胞菌(Pseudomonas stutzeri)、柴油食烷菌(Alcanivorax dieselolei)、三浦半岛盐乳杆菌(Halolactibacillus miurensis)、海迪茨氏菌(Dietzia maris)可以具体鉴定到种,这些深海细菌目前已在产抗生素、生物防治、石油降解、反硝化等方面被开发利用。基于高通量测序显示出采样点南海海洋深层水细菌具有独特菌群特征和多样性,有其极为丰富的生物学开发利用价值。     

Bacterial activity along a trophic gradient

Bacterial biomass, secondary production, and extracellular enzymatic activity [-glucosidase and leucine-aminopeptidase, measured as cleavage of artificial fluorogenic substrates 4-methyl umbelliferyl (MVF) -D-glucopyranoside and L-leucine 7-amido-4-methyl coumarin (MCA)] were measured along a trophic gradient in the Northern Adriatic Sea in four ecologically different situations. Bacterial parameters were compared with chlorophyll a and inorganic and organic nutrient concentrations. Bacterial secondary production and extracellular enzymatic activity markedly changed among different seasons and along the trophic gradient. Average bacterial secondary production increased from 0.61 to 2.09 µg Cl^–1 hour^–1 preceding a bloom, to 2.09 µg Cl^–1 hour^–1 during the bloom, decreasing again to 0.81 and 0.83 µg Cl^–1 hour^–1 in the post-bloom and summer periods, respectively (values from 0.5 m depth). Leucine-aminopeptidase activity showed more consistent trends than -glucosidase activity. Average values of leucine-aminopeptidase activity, measured by enzymatic release of MCA, increased from a pre-bloom value of 164.0 to 1,712.0 (nM MCA) hour^–1 released during a bloom, decreasing to 298.5 and 133.7 (nM MCA) hour^–1 released for the post-bloom and summer situation, respectively (values from 0.5 m depth). Average growth rates decreased during the bloom, whereas average extracellular enzymatic activity levels expressed on a cell basis increased by an average factor of 2. Along the trophic gradient, a consistent increase in bacterial secondary production could be observed in all but the summer situation (values from 0.5 m depth). Leucine-aminopeptidase activity also showed positive trends along the gradient, while -glucosidase activity did not exhibit such a clear trend. Bacterial biomass trends were less obvious considering both seasonal changes and the tropic gradient. Highly significant interrelations were detected between bacterial proteolytic activity, secondary production, chlorophyll a content, and nitrate concentrations, especially in the surface horizon. Send offprint requests to: G. J. Hemdl.     

Disentangling the mechanisms behind winter snow impact on vegetation activity in northern ecosystems

Although seasonal snow is recognized as an important component in the global climate system, the ability of snow to affect plant production remains an important unknown for assessing climate change impacts on vegetation dynamics at high‐latitude ecosystems. Here, we compile data on satellite observation of vegetation greenness and spring onset date, satellite‐based soil moisture, passive microwave snow water equivalent (SWE) and climate data to show that winter SWE can significantly influence vegetation greenness during the early growing season (the period between spring onset date and peak photosynthesis timing) over nearly one‐fifth of the land surface in the region north of 30 degrees, but the magnitude and sign of correlation exhibits large spatial heterogeneity. We then apply an assembled path model to disentangle the two main processes (via changing early growing‐season soil moisture, and via changing the growth period) in controlling the impact of winter SWE on vegetation greenness, and suggest that the “moisture” and “growth period” effect, to a larger extent, result in positive and negative snow–productivity associations, respectively. The magnitude and sign of snow–productivity association is then dependent upon the relative dominance of these two processes, with the “moisture” effect and positive association predominating in Central, western North America and Greater Himalaya, and the “growth period” effect and negative association in Central Europe. We also indicate that current state‐of‐the‐art models in general reproduce satellite‐based snow–productivity relationship in the region north of 30 degrees, and do a relatively better job of capturing the “moisture” effect than the “growth period” effect. Our results therefore work towards an improved understanding of winter snow impact on vegetation greenness in northern ecosystems, and provide a mechanistic basis for more realistic terrestrial carbon cycle models that consider the impacts of winter snow processes.     

南方森林雨雪冰冻灾害的特征

近年来极端气候事件频发,各地的雨雪冰冻灾害受到广泛关注。极端的雨雪冰冻灾害作为一个重要的扰动因子,对森林生态系统造成重大影响,尤其是在中国冰雪天气少有发生的南亚热带地区。2008年1-2月中国南方遭受了一场低温雨雪冰冻综合性极端天气灾害,其持续时间长,影响范围广,对中国南方森林造成了严重的损害。国内对此次雨雪冰冻灾情概况、林木受损情况以及雨雪冰冻灾害程度的影响因素等方面开展了大量研究,而现有的研究对受损林木评定的标准主观、粗略不全或是概念混淆,造成各研究结果难以比较。为明晰分类标准及相关概念,本文在总结雨雪冰冻灾害发生的气候与生物学特点、整合前人研究结果的基础上,提出雨雪冰冻灾害中林木生理冻害分类标准以及林木机械损伤分类标准,为相关研究提供参考依据。同时,总结分析雨雪冰冻灾害中导致森林受损的各影响因素,并将众多的因素总结归纳为影响凝雪冰凌重量及林木自身抵抗力2个方面。最后,针对灾害的影响因素以及灾后森林易发生的次生灾害,提出灾后森林恢复与重建的建议。