Abstract

Deception Island is a geothermal location in Antarctica that presents active fumaroles, which confers unique characteristics to this habitat. Several studies about microbial communities in Antarctica have been carried out, nevertheless, Antarctic microbiota is still partially unknown. Here we present a multidisciplinary study about sediments obtained by deposition during 4 years in which several approaches have been considered for their characterization. First, a physicochemical characterization, using ionic chromatography and mass spectrometry for the determination of most abundant ions (chloride and sulphate) and elements (mainly silicon), was conducted. In addition, the total microbial community was studied using a metataxonomical approach, revealing a bacterial community dominated by Proteobacteria and Thaumarchaeota as the main archaeal genera and a fungal community mainly composed by Aspergillaceae. Culture-dependent studies showed low microbial diversity, only achieving the isolation of Bacillus-related species, some of them thermophilic, and the isolation of common fungi of Aspergillus or Penicillium spp. Furthermore, diatoms were detected in the sediment and characterized attending to their morphological characteristics using scanning electron microscopy. The study reveals a high influence of the physicochemical conditions in the microbial populations and their distribution, offering valuable data on the interaction between the island and water microbiota.

Highlights

  • This study aims to gain a deeper insight into the Polar microbiology, by describing the microbiome of the sediments generated in a unique location on Deception Island

  • Ionic chromatography (IC) analysis showed that chloride and sulphur are the main ions in the sample (Table 1), whereas the atomic composition determinations (ICP-OES)

  • Deception Island is covered by lapilli and pyroclastic ash on most of its surface [30]

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Summary

Introduction

Received: 2 July 2021Accepted: 27 July 2021Published: 30 July 2021Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/).Microorganisms are the most versatile and ubiquitous life form on Earth. Microbial populations can dwell and grow in extreme environments such as Antarctica. The Antarctic continent presents unique characteristics, most of its extension is ice-covered, and in some parts, different extreme conditions converge. One of these unique locations is Deception

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