Changes in the Active, Dead, and Dormant Microbial Community Structure across a Pleistocene Permafrost Chronosequence

• Alexander Burkert ^[2] ; Thomas A. Douglas ^[3] ; Mark P. Waldrop ^[1] ; Rachel Mackelprang ^[2]
  1. [1] United States Geological Survey

     United States Geological Survey

     Estados Unidos

     
  2. [2] a Department of Biology, California State University, Northridge, California, USA
  3. [3] b U.S. Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory, Fort Wainwright, Alaska, USA

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• Localización: Applied and Environmental Microbiology, ISSN 0099-2240, Vol. 85, Nº 7, 2019
• Idioma: inglés
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  • Permafrost soils store more than half of Earth’s soil carbon despite covering ∼15% of the land area (C. Tarnocai et al., Global Biogeochem Cycles 23:GB2023, 2009, https://doi.org/10.1029/2008GB003327). This permafrost carbon is rapidly degraded following a thaw (E. A. G. Schuur et al., Nature 520:171–179, 2015, https://doi.org/10.1038/nature14338). Understanding microbial communities in permafrost will contribute to the knowledge base necessary to understand the rates and forms of permafrost C and N cycling postthaw. Permafrost is also an analog for frozen extraterrestrial environments, and evidence of viable organisms in ancient permafrost is of interest to those searching for potential life on distant worlds. If we can identify strategies microbial communities utilize to survive in permafrost, it may yield insights into how life (if it exists) survives in frozen environments outside of Earth. Our work is significant because it contributes to an understanding of how microbial life adapts and survives in the extreme environmental conditions in permafrost terrains.