At limits of life: Multidisciplinary insights reveal environmental constraints on biotic diversity in Continental Antarctica

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dc.contributor.authorMagalhães, Catarina M.
dc.contributor.authorStevens, Mark I.
dc.contributor.authorCary, S. Craig
dc.contributor.authorBall, Becky A.
dc.contributor.authorStorey, Bryan
dc.contributor.authorWall, Diana H.
dc.contributor.authorTürk, Roman
dc.contributor.authorRuprecht, Ulrike
dc.coverage.spatialUnited Statesen_NZ
dc.date.accessioned2012-10-11T21:17:48Z
dc.date.available2012-10-11T21:17:48Z
dc.date.copyright2012-09-19
dc.date.issued2012
dc.description.abstractMultitrophic communities that maintain the functionality of the extreme Antarctic terrestrial ecosystems, while the simplest of any natural community, are still challenging our knowledge about the limits to life on earth. In this study, we describe and interpret the linkage between the diversity of different trophic level communities to the geological morphology and soil geochemistry in the remote Transantarctic Mountains (Darwin Mountains, 80°S). We examined the distribution and diversity of biota (bacteria, cyanobacteria, lichens, algae, invertebrates) with respect to elevation, age of glacial drift sheets, and soil physicochemistry. Results showed an abiotic spatial gradient with respect to the diversity of the organisms across different trophic levels. More complex communities, in terms of trophic level diversity, were related to the weakly developed younger drifts (Hatherton and Britannia) with higher soil C/N ratio and lower total soluble salts content (thus lower conductivity). Our results indicate that an increase of ion concentration from younger to older drift regions drives a succession of complex to more simple communities, in terms of number of trophic levels and diversity within each group of organisms analysed. This study revealed that integrating diversity across multi-trophic levels of biotic communities with abiotic spatial heterogeneity and geological history is fundamental to understand environmental constraints influencing biological distribution in Antarctic soil ecosystemsen_NZ
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdf
dc.identifier.citationMagalhães, C., Stevens, M. I., Cary, S. C., Ball, B. A., Storey, B., Wall, D. H., Türk, R., et al. (2012). At limits of life: Multidisciplinary insights reveal environmental constraints on biotic diversity in Continental Antarctica. PLoS ONE, 7(9), e44578.en_NZ
dc.identifier.doi10.1371/journal.pone.0044578en_NZ
dc.identifier.issn1932-6203
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10289/6715
dc.language.isoen
dc.publisherPublic Library of Scienceen_NZ
dc.relation.isPartOfPLoS ONEen_NZ
dc.relation.ispartofPLoS ONE
dc.rights©2012 Magalhães et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.en_NZ
dc.titleAt limits of life: Multidisciplinary insights reveal environmental constraints on biotic diversity in Continental Antarcticaen_NZ
dc.typeJournal Articleen_NZ
pubs.begin-page1en_NZ
pubs.elements-id38000
pubs.end-page10en_NZ
pubs.issue9en_NZ
pubs.volume7en_NZ
uow.identifier.article-noARTN e44578en_NZ
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