Wang, Jun and Liu, Long and Zhao, Yunxia and Zhang, Xinyuan and Xu, Xiaoyu and Zhu, Xiaofeng and Kong, Lingkai and Cao, Huansheng and Wang, Nengfei and Du, Jiawen (2025) Changes in bacterial community structure along a slope in sparse tundra soil near the Antarctic coast. Advances in Polar Science, 36 (4). pp. 345-355.
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Abstract
Research on Antarctic microbial diversity has primarily focused on 3 areas: freshwater lake sediments, penguin colonies, and seawater in ice-free regions. There is a scarcity of research on the impact of slopes on microbial community structure, and this study effectively fills this gap. This study focused on the soil in the sparse vegetated tundra on a hillside near the southern coastline of the Antarctic Great Wall Station. The influence of slope position, soil physicochemical properties, and vegetated area on soil bacterial community structure was analyzed. High-throughput sequencing technology was employed to characterize a 16S rRNA gene fragment in soil samples from 5 slope areas and estimate bacterial abundance. Calculation of α-diversity and β-diversity indices, and community structure analysis were used to compare the species richness among sampling points, analyze similarities in soil bacterial community structure and composition, and identify the core bacterial population. In the non-vegetated area, the soil on the mountaintop, hillside, and at the foot of the slope showed similar physicochemical properties. In the vegetated area, the soil physicochemical properties were highly similar on the mountaintop, hillside, the foot of the slope, and the foot of the mountain. Weighted Gene Co-expression Network Analysis showed that total organic carbon, pH, and PO4 3–-P might affect the structure of bacterial communities at the sampling point by changing the relative abundance of Chthoniobacterales, Sediminibacterium, and Actinobacteria. We hypothesize that slope-driven nutrient transport, amplified by vegetated areas (in the tundra), is a primary driver of bacterial community structure in the Antarctic tundra soil. These results provide insights into the impact of slope on microbial community structure in Antarctica.
| Item Type: | Article |
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| Related URLs: | |
| Keywords: | Antarctic, high-throughput sequencing, WGCNA, bacterial diversity, soil physicochemical properties |
| Subjects: | Natural Environment > Cryosphere Natural Environment > Terrestrial |
| Organizations: | Advances in Polar Science (APS) |
| Date Deposited: | 22 Apr 2026 15:06 |
| URI: | https://library.arcticportal.org/id/eprint/2952 |
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