Micro-eukaryotic diversity in hypolithons from Miers Valley, Antarctica
Files
Published version, 203.8Kb
Citation
Export citationGokul, J. K., Valverde, A., Tuffin, M. I., Cary, S. C., & Cowan, D. A. (2013). Micro-eukaryotic diversity in hypolithons from Miers Valley, Antarctica. Biology, 2(1), 331–340. http://doi.org/10.3390/biology2010331
Permanent Research Commons link: https://hdl.handle.net/10289/8964
Abstract
The discovery of extensive and complex hypolithic communities in both cold and hot deserts has raised many questions regarding their ecology, biodiversity and relevance in terms of regional productivity. However, most hypolithic research has focused on the bacterial elements of the community. This study represents the first investigation of micro-eukaryotic communities in all three hypolith types. Here we show that Antarctic hypoliths support extensive populations of novel uncharacterized bryophyta, fungi and protists and suggest that well known producer-decomposer-predator interactions may create the necessary conditions for hypolithic productivity in Antarctic deserts.
Date
2013-02-22Type
Publisher
MDPI AG
Rights
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License