103 Results Found

To study how Odontaster validus can influence the spatial structure of Antarctic benthic communities and how they respond to disturbance, it is necessary to assess potential dietary shifts in different habitats. We investigated the diets of O. validu...

While the recession of glaciers in the Antarctic is of global concern under climate change, the impact of deglaciation on soil microbiomes is still limited. Here, soil samples were collected from permafrost (P), moraine (M) and Deschampsia antarctica...

Diatoms are useful ecological and paleolimnological indicators routinely used to reconstruct past conditions and monitor environmental change. Despite this, diatom assemblages from lake sediment cores are often difficult to interpret due to a limited...

Ice scouring is one of the strongest agents of disturbance in nearshore environments at high latitudes. In depths, less than 20 m, grounding icebergs reshape the soft-sediment seabed by gouging furrows called ice pits. Large amounts of drift algae (u...

Marine sponges usually host a wide array of secondary metabolites that play crucial roles in their biological interactions. The factors that influence the intraspecific variability in the metabolic profile of organisms, their production or ecological...

The assemblages of marine benthic organisms and sediment characteristics were investigated in the coastal area between the Mario Zucchelli Antarctic Research Station and Adelie Cove in Terra Nova Bay (Ross Sea, Southern Ocean) during the 2015 summer...

The Antarctic Ocean is one of the most remote and inaccessible environments on our planet and hosts potentially high biodiversity, being largely unexplored and undescribed. Fungi have key functions and unique physiological and morphological adaptatio...

Many Antarctic marine benthic macroinvertebrates are chemically protected against predation by marine natural products of different types. Antarctic potential predators mostly include sea stars (macropredators) and amphipod crustaceans (micropredator...

The study of ecological connectivity is a global priority due to the important role it plays in the conservation of diversity. However, few studies in this context have focused on marine benthic ecosystems. To address this issue, the present work det...

We studied the fungal diversity present in soils sampled along a deglaciated chronosequence from para- to periglacial conditions on James Ross Island, north-east Antarctic Peninsula, using DNA metabarcoding. A total of 88 amplicon sequence variants (...

We collected live mixed natural samples from the northeastern Ross Sea during the austral summer of 2017 and isolated a novel Prorocentrum sp. (Dinophyceae) associated with mucilaginous Phaeocystis antarctica (Coccolithophyceae) colonies. The haptoph...

Antarctica is one of the most inhospitable continents on the planet, with lichens and mosses being the most common terrestrial organisms in ice-free areas. Antarctica is represented by only two species of Angiosperms, Deschampsia antarctica Desv. (Po...

Identifying the factors influencing seabird breeding output is critical for their conservation because breeding performance in turn influences population dynamics. This is particularly important in sensitive environments, where ecological disturbance...

This study investigates the relationship between secondary metabolites and stress tolerance in moss species, with a specific emphasis on comparing Antarctic and Korean mosses. Analyses of total phenolic content (TPC) and total flavonoid content (TFC)...

The aim of this study was to investigate the presence of Mycoplasma spp. and their identification in seals from Antarctica. During January and February 2010, 59 Antarctic fur seals (Arctocephalus gazella), 17 Weddell seals (Leptonychotes weddellii),...

Growth and diversification of tourism activities in Antarctica have not been matched by proactive strategies for planning or management. Recognizing that the adaptive management approach has been effectively implemented in managing tourism in protect...

Increasing pollution has significantly threatened the Antarctic ecosystem. The contamination of hydrocarbons has drawn a considerable amount of attention owing to their toxicity, recalcitrance, and persistence. Considering the Antarctic Treaty, only...

The world-famous Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) plays a fundamental role in the Antarctic food chain. It resides in cold environments with the most abundant biomass to support the Antarctic ecology and fisheries. Here, we performed the first gen...

Antarctic waters are the largest almost untapped diversified resource of our planet. Molecular resources for Antarctic organisms are very limited and mostly represented by sequences used for species genotyping. In this study, we present the first tra...

We report on the screening of ethanolic extracts from 33 deep-sea Antarctic marine sponges for different biological activities. We monitored hemolysis, inhibition of acetylcholinesterase, cytotoxicity towards normal and transformed cells and growth i...

Poa annua (annual bluegrass) is one of the most ubiquitous grass species in the world. In isolated regions of maritime Antarctica, it has become an invasive organism threatening native tundra communities. In this study, we have explored and compared...

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...

Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) is a key species of the Antarctic ecosystem whose unique ecological status and great development potential have attracted extensive attention. However, the genomic characteristics and potential biological functions...

Deschampsia antarctica and Colobantus quitensis are the only two vascular plants colonized on the Antarctic continent, which is usually exposed to extreme environments. Endophytic bacteria residing within plant tissues can exhibit diverse adaptations...

(1) Background: The unique geographical and climatic conditions of the Antarctic Peninsula contribute to distinct regional ecosystems. Microorganisms are crucial for sustaining the local ecological equilibrium. However, the variability in soil microb...

During China’s 41st Antarctic research expedition, samples were collected from wildlife on the Fildes Peninsula, South Shetland Islands, Antarctica. Real-time RT-PCR screening confirmed H5N1 positivity, representing the first identification of...

The distribution and assembly mechanisms of microorganisms in Antarctic lakes and glaciers remain poorly understood, despite their ecological significance. This study investigates the bacterial diversity and community composition in glacier borehole...

Due to the local and natural characteristics of high latitude and altitude in the Three Polar Region (TPR)—that is, the Antarctic, the Arctic, and the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP)—this region has been significantly affected by climate chan...

Microorganisms from extreme environments are considered as a new and valuable reservoir of bioactive molecules of biotechnological interest and are also utilized as tools for enhancing tolerance to (a)biotic stresses in crops. In this study, the fung...

Organellar genomes of bryophytes are poorly represented with chloroplast genomes of only four mosses, four liverworts and two hornworts having been sequenced and annotated. Moreover, while Antarctic vegetation is dominated by the bryophytes, there ar...

The isolated sub-Antarctic islands are of major ecological interest because of their unique species diversity and long history of limited human disturbance. However, since the presence of Europeans, these islands and their sensitive biota have been u...

Winds in the Southern Ocean drive exchanges of heat and carbon dioxide between the ocean and atmosphere. Wind dynamics also explain the dominant patterns of both basal and surface melting of glaciers and ice shelves in the Amundsen and Bellingshausen...

One of the aims of the XXXIV Italian Antarctic Expedition is the study of the photosynthetic biodiversity of the Ross Sea. To achieve this goal, sea-ice samples were collected from Inexpressible Island and a strain of a green microalga (IMA076A) was...

Polar regions tend to support simple food webs, which are vulnerable to phage-induced gene transfer or microbial death. To further investigate phage-host interactions in polar regions and the potential linkage of phage communities between the two pol...

Glacier change studies in the Antarctic Peninsula region, despite their importance for global sea level rise, are commonly restricted to the investigation of frontal position changes. Here we present a long term (37 years; 1979–2016) study of ice ele...

Antarctica, one of the harshest environments in the world, has been successfully colonized by extremophilic, psychrophilic, and psychrotolerant microorganisms, facing a range of extreme conditions. Fungi are the most diverse taxon in the Antarctic ec...

This work completes and updates the information about the diversity and distribution of benthic assemblages in an Antarctic fjord (South Bay, Antarctic Peninsula) 40 years after the first and only community-level study was conducted there. To determi...

Lichens are an important vegetative component of the Antarctic terrestrial ecosystem and present a wide diversity. Recent advances in omics technologies have allowed for the identification of lichen microbiomes and the complex symbiotic relationships...

Polynyas play a crucial role in polar ecosystems, influencing biodiversity, climate regulation, and oceanic processes. This study employs Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data to determine the optimal sea ice concentration threshold for polynya identif...

Antarctic sea-ice is exposed to a wide range of environmental conditions during its annual existence; however, there is very little information describing the change in sea-ice-associated microbial communities (SIMCOs) during the changing seasons. It...

The external morphology of the fourth-instar larva of the Antarctic endemic chironomid midge Belgica antarctica is described. Larvae were collected from Jougla Point (Wiencke Island) and an un-named island close to Enterprise Island, off the coast of...

A special issue (SI) titled “Microbial Diversity in Extreme Environments: Implications for Ecological and Applicative Perspectives” has been launched with the aim of showcasing the diversity and biotechnological potential of extremophilic...

This study investigates taxonomic characteristics of carnivorous sponges from the Southern Ocean. The specimens were collected in 2010 from deep-sea hydrothermal vents of the East Scotia Ridge during the RRS James Cook Cruise JC42. All the investigat...

To assess the diversity of bacterial taxa in Antarctic soils and obtain novel microbial resources, 15 samples from 3 sampling sites (DIS5, GWS7, FPS10) of South Shetland Islands and 2 sampling sites (APS18, CIS17) of Antarctic Peninsula were collecte...

As many bacteria detected in Antarctic environments are neither true psychrophiles nor endemic species, their proliferation in spite of environmental extremes gives rise to genome adaptations. Janthinobacterium sp. CG23_2 is a bacterial isolate from...

Polar marine biota have adapted to thrive under one of the ocean’s most inhospitable scenarios, where extremes of temperature, light photoperiod and ice disturbance, along with ecological interactions, have selected species with a unique suite...

Cryptoendolithic communities are almost the sole life form in the ice-free areas of the Antarctic desert, encompassing among the most extreme-tolerant organisms known on Earth that still assure ecosystems functioning, regulating nutrient and biogeoch...

Marine protected areas (MPAs) can provide a range of ecological benefits. Frameworks—including the IUCN protected area categories and The MPA Guide—offer tools towards evaluating an MPA’s objectives, types, Level of Protection, and...

The Antarctic region is usually considered a pristine area. Nevertheless, regional warming effects and increasing human activities, including the presence of several research stations, are inducing considerable environmental changes that may affect t...

Phytoplankton and zooplanktonic communities form the base of the Antarctic food web. This study examines the evolution of the mesozooplanktonic system in Terra Nova Bay during the austral summer (December–February), focusing on the impact of se...