Abstract
The main objective of the current research work was to investigate the physicochemical properties of ice samples collected from the snout of three important glaciers located in the Garhwal Himalaya along with the psychrophilic microbial diversity. This study was carried out for two years from 2015 to 2016 with two sampling attempts each year. Ice samples were collected from all the pre-identified sampling sites at a depth of 5cm to observe and record the characteristics and to isolate and identify the psychrophilic diversity of microorganisms. Overall fourteen physical and chemical properties of ice samples were recorded. The psychrophilic microbial diversity was identified through the morphological, biochemical and MALDI-TOF-MS techniques. The α–diversity of microbes in the ice of Satopanth glacier was 17 with 08 bacterial species, 04 actinomycetes species and 05 fungal species. However, the α–diversity of microbes in the ice of Bhagirathi-Kharak glacier was also 17 with 06 bacterial species, 05 actinomycetes species and 06 fungal species. The α–diversity of microbes in the ice of Gangotri glacier was 19 with 09 bacterial species, 05 actinomycetes species and 05 fungal species. The present research work can be a decent reference for additional investigations in a similar discipline. The available data will also help the researchers to study the psychrophiles, their existence in glaciers and their importance to society.
Highlights
The Garhwal Himalaya is very rich in terms of the presence of glaciers including one of the biggest, the Gangotri glacier
Physicochemical characteristics of glacial ice Evaluated data of fourteen physicochemical characteristics of ice samples were recorded under two sampling actions each year during 2015 and 2016 from the Satopanth glacier, Bhagirathi-Kharak glacier and Gangotri glacier of Garhwal Himalaya (Table 1)
As the samples were collected during the day time, the range of air temperature was between 11.4°C to 14.5°C for Satopanth glacier and 12°C to 18°C for Bhagirathi-Kharak glacier
Summary
The Garhwal Himalaya is very rich in terms of the presence of glaciers including one of the biggest, the Gangotri glacier. Some of the most important and widely known glaciers in the Garhwal Himalaya are Satopanth glacier, Bhagirathi-Kharak glacier, Gangotri glacier, Kirti glacier, Banderpunch glacier, Chorabari glacier, Dokriani glacier, Doonagiri glacier, Chaukhamba glacier and Nanda Devi glacier Such glacial habitats have extreme environments in terms of very low temperatures. These glaciers support a cold-loving group of microorganisms or psychrophiles. Extremophiles are the group of microbes that can exist and grow in one of a kind and outrageous conditions including temperature, and pH (Oarga, 2009) Among these extremophilic microorganisms, the psychrophiles or the cold-loving microbes can sustain at extreme low temperature. Zhang et al, (2007) have contributed to cultivable bacterial diversity of ice of Himalayan glaciers; Steven et al, (2007) have contributed on the microbial diversity characterization from permafrost ice of the Canadian high Arctic using cultivable and non-cultivable methods; Zhang et al, (2008) have worked on the presence of bacterial diversity in glacial ice of Himalaya; Xiang et al, (2009) contributed on leading bacterial diversity from
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