Estimating biodiversity across the tree of life on Mount Everest's southern flank with environmental DNA.

Species composition in high-alpine ecosystems is a useful indicator for monitoring climatic and environmental changes at the upper limits of habitable environments. We used environmental DNA (eDNA) analysis to document the breadth of high-alpine biodiversity present on Earth's highest mountain, Mt. Everest (8,849 m a.

Crossing Treeline: Bacterioplankton Communities of Alpine and Subalpine Rocky Mountain Lakes.

From the aboveground vegetation to the belowground microbes, terrestrial communities differ between the highly divergent alpine (above treeline) and subalpine (below treeline) ecosystems. Yet, much less is known about the partitioning of microbial communities between alpine and subalpine lakes. Our goal was to determine whether the composition of bacterioplankton communities of high-elevation mountain lakes differed across treeline, identify key players in driving the community composition, and identify potential environmental factors that may be driving differences.

Gullies and Moraines Are Islands of Biodiversity in an Arid, Mountain Landscape, Asgard Range, Antarctica.

Cold, dry, and nutrient-poor, the McMurdo Dry Valleys of Antarctica are among the most extreme terrestrial environments on Earth. Numerous studies have described microbial communities of low elevation soils and streams below glaciers, while less is known about microbial communities in higher elevation soils above glaciers. We characterized microbial life in four landscape features (habitats) of a mountain in Taylor Valley.

Microbial Species-Area Relationships in Antarctic Cryoconite Holes Depend on Productivity.

The island species-area relationship (ISAR) is a positive association between the number of species and the area of an isolated, island-like habitat. ISARs are ubiquitous across domains of life, yet the processes generating ISARs remain poorly understood, particularly for microbes. Larger and more productive islands are hypothesized to have more species because they support larger populations of each species and thus reduce the probability of stochastic extinctions in small population sizes.

Comparison of Microbial Communities in the Sediments and Water Columns of Frozen Cryoconite Holes in the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica.

Although cryoconite holes, sediment-filled melt holes on glacier surfaces, appear small and homogenous, their microbial inhabitants may be spatially partitioned. This partitioning could be particularly important for maintaining biodiversity in holes that remain isolated for many years, such as in Antarctica. We hypothesized that cryoconite holes with greater species richness and biomass should exhibit greater partitioning between the sediments and water, promoting greater biodiversity through spatial niche partitioning.

A in high places: functioning populations or dormant cells from the atmosphere?

Here, we review the current state of knowledge concerning high-elevation members of the extremophilic clade (now classified as the genus ). These fungi dominate eukaryotic microbial communities across the highest elevation, soil-like material (tephra) on volcanoes such as Llullaillaco, Socompa, and Saírecabur in the Atacama region of Chile, Argentina, and Bolivia. Recent studies indicate that species are among the most resistant organisms to UV radiation, and a strain of from Volcán Llullaillaco is the first organism that is known to grow during the extreme, diurnal freeze-thaw cycles that occur on a continuous basis at elevations above 6000 m.

Microbial Communities of High-Elevation Fumaroles, Penitentes, and Dry Tephra "Soils" of the Puna de Atacama Volcanic Zone.

The aim of this study was to understand the spatial distribution of microbial communities (18S and 16S rRNA genes) across one of the harshest terrestrial landscapes on Earth. We carried out Illumina sequencing using samples from two expeditions to the high slopes (up to 6050 m.a.