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Publication Details
AFRICAN RESEARCH NEXUS
SHINING A SPOTLIGHT ON AFRICAN RESEARCH
Hypolithic communities: Important nitrogen sources in Antarctic desert soils
Environmental Microbiology Reports, Volume 3, No. 5, Year 2011
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Description
Hypolithic microbial communities (i.e. cryptic microbial assemblages found on the undersides of translucent rocks) are major contributors of carbon input into the oligotrophic hyper-arid desert mineral soils of the Eastern Antarctic Dry Valleys. Here we demonstrate, for the first time, that hypolithic microbial communities possess both the genetic capacity for nitrogen fixation (i.e. the presence of nifH genes) and the ability to catalyse acetylene reduction, an accepted proxy for dinitrogen fixation. An estimate of the total contribution of these communities suggests that hypolithic communities are important contributors to fixed nitrogen budgets in Antarctic desert soils. © 2011 Society for Applied Microbiology and Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
Authors & Co-Authors
Cowan, Don A.
South Africa, Bellville
University of the Western Cape
Sohm, J. A.
United States, Los Angeles
University of Southern California
Makhalanyane, T. P.
South Africa, Bellville
University of the Western Cape
Capone, Douglas G.
United States, Los Angeles
University of Southern California
Green, T. G.Allan
New Zealand, Hamilton
The University of Waikato
Cary, Stephen Craig
New Zealand, Hamilton
The University of Waikato
United States, Newark
College of Earth, Ocean and Environment
Trindade, Marla
South Africa, Bellville
University of the Western Cape
Statistics
Citations: 73
Authors: 7
Affiliations: 4
Identifiers
Doi:
10.1111/j.1758-2229.2011.00266.x
e-ISSN:
17582229
Research Areas
Environmental
Genetics And Genomics