High Arctic (left) and Continental Antarctic (right) lake bottoms, covered by dense microbial mats. Credits: David Velazquez (image left), Sakae Kudoh (image right)
High Arctic ( left ) and Continental Antarctic ( right ) lake bottoms, covered by dense microbial mats. Credits: David Velazquez (image left), Sakae Kudoh (image right) - High Arctic (left) and Continental Antarctic (right) lake bottoms, covered by dense microbial mats. Credits: David Velazquez An international research team of scientists led by biologists from Ghent University investigated the biodiversity and evolutionary history of microorganisms in Arctic, sub-Antarctic and Antarctic lakes in the first large scale study using DNA. The polar regions are characterized by extreme living conditions such as very low temperatures and low availability of water and nutrients. Lakes in this harsh environment are oases of biodiversity and productivity, where life is dominated by microscopic organisms. For a long time it was assumed that microorganisms, because of their astronomical numbers and small cell size, have moved unhindered across the Earth and colonized all suitable habitats. This hypothesis has now been tested by using DNA to compare the composition of these communities in more than 200 Arctic, sub-Antarctic and Antarctic lakes to determine whether they have the same evolutionary history.
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