Microbial communities from subglacial water of naled ice bodies in the forefield of Werenskioldbreen, Svalbard

Sławomir Sułowicz; Kinga Bondarczuk; Dariusz Ignatiuk; Jacek A Jania; Zofia Piotrowska-Seget

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.138025

Microbial communities from subglacial water of naled ice bodies in the forefield of Werenskioldbreen, Svalbard

Sci Total Environ. 2020 Jun 25:723:138025. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.138025. Epub 2020 Mar 18.

Authors

Sławomir Sułowicz¹, Kinga Bondarczuk², Dariusz Ignatiuk³, Jacek A Jania⁴, Zofia Piotrowska-Seget⁵

Affiliations

¹ University of Silesia in Katowice, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Institute of Biology, Biotechnology and Environmental Protection, Jagiellonska 28, 40-032 Katowice, Poland. Electronic address: slawomir.sulowicz@us.edu.pl.
² Medical University of Bialystok, Centre for Bioinformatics and Data Analysis, Waszyngtona 13a, 15-269 Bialystok, Poland.
³ University of Silesia in Katowice, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Institute of Earth Sciences, Bedzinska 60, 41-205 Sosnowiec, Poland; Svalbard Integrated Arctic Earth Observing System (SIOS), SIOS Knowledge Centre, Svalbard Science Centre, P.O. Box 156, N-9171 Longyearbyen, Svalbard, Norway.
⁴ University of Silesia in Katowice, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Institute of Earth Sciences, Bedzinska 60, 41-205 Sosnowiec, Poland.
⁵ University of Silesia in Katowice, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Institute of Biology, Biotechnology and Environmental Protection, Jagiellonska 28, 40-032 Katowice, Poland.

PMID: 32213417
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.138025

Abstract

We assessed the structure of microbial communities in the subglacial drainage system of the Werenskioldbreen glacier, Svalbard, which consists of three independent channels. Dome-shaped naled ice bodies that had been forming and releasing subglacial water in the glacial forefield during accumulations season were used to study glacial microbiome. We tested the hypothesis that the properties of the water transported by these channels are site-dependent and influence bacterial diversity. We therefore established the phylogenetic structure of the subglacial microbial communities using next generation sequencing (NGS) of the 16S rRNA gene and performed bioinformatics analyses. A total of 1409 OTUs (operational taxonomic units) belonged to 40 phyla; mostly Proteobacteria, Gracilibacteria, Bacteroidetes, Actinobacteria and Parcubacteria were identified. Sites located on the edge of Werenskioldbreen forefield (Angell, Kvisla) were mainly dominated by Betaproteobacteria. In the central site (Dusan) domination of Epsilonproteobacteria class was observed. Gracilibacteria (GN02) and Gammaproteobacteria represented the dominant taxa only in the sample Kvisla 2. Principal Coordinate Analysis (PCoA) of beta diversity revealed that phylogenetic profiles grouped in three different clusters according to the sampling site. Moreover, higher similarity of bacterial communities from Angell and Kvisla compared to Dusan was confirmed by cluster analysis and Venn diagrams. The highest alpha index values was measured in Dusan. Richness and phylogenetic diversity indices were significantly (p < .05) and positively correlated with pH values of subglacial water and negatively with concentration of Cl^-, Br^-, and NO₃^- anions. These anions negatively impacted the values of richness indices but positively correlated with abundance of some microbial phyla. Our results indicated that subglacial water from naled ice bodies offer the possibility to study the glacial microbiome. In the studied subglacial water, the microbial community structure was sampling site specific and dependent on the water properties, which in turn were probably influenced by the local bedrock composition.

Keywords: Microbial communities; NGS of 16S rRNA; Naled-ice bodies; Subglacial microbiome.

MeSH terms

Ice Cover
Microbiota*
Naled*
Phylogeny
RNA, Ribosomal, 16S
Svalbard
Water

Substances

RNA, Ribosomal, 16S
Water
Naled