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Dark Diazotrophy during the Late Summer in Surface Waters of Chile Bay, West Antarctic Peninsula

Although crucial for the addition of new nitrogen in marine ecosystems, dinitrogen (N2) fixation remains an understudied process, especially under dark conditions and in polar coastal areas, such as the West Antarctic Peninsula (WAP). New …

A general theory for temperature dependence in biology

One of the most fundamental physical constraints on living systems is temperature. Despite its importance, a simple, mechanistic, and general theory that fully predicts the response to temperature across all scales has not yet been derived. Here we …

Microbial Biogeochemical Cycling of Nitrogen in Arid Ecosystems

Arid ecosystems cover ∼40% of the Earth’s terrestrial surface and store a high proportion of the global nitrogen (N) pool. They are low-productivity, low-biomass, and polyextreme ecosystems, i.e., with (hyper)arid and (hyper)oligotrophic conditions …

Surface Ammonia-Oxidizer Abundance During the Late Summer in the West Antarctic Coastal System

Marine ammonia oxidizers that oxidize ammonium to nitrite are abundant in polar waters, especially during the winter in the deeper mixed-layer of West Antarctic Peninsula (WAP) waters. However, the activity and abundance of ammonia-oxidizers during …

Unveiling Ecological and Genetic Novelty within Lytic and Lysogenic Viral Communities of Hot Spring Phototrophic Microbial Mats

Viruses exert diverse ecosystem impacts by controlling their host community through lytic predator-prey dynamics. However, the mechanisms by which ly-sogenic viruses influence their host-microbial community are less clear. In hot springs, lysogeny is …

Antarctic polyester hydrolases degrade aliphatic and aromatic polyesters at moderate temperatures

Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is one of the most widely used synthetic plastics in the packaging industry, and consequently has become one of the main components of plastic waste found in the environment. However, several microorganisms have been …

Ecogenomics and Adaptation Strategies of Southern Ocean Viral Communities

Viruses are the most abundant biologic entities in marine systems and strongly influence the microbial community composition and diversity. However, little is known about viral communities’ adaptation and diversification in the ocean.The Southern …

Proteorhodopsin Phototrophy in Antarctic Coastal Waters

Proteorhodopsin-bearing microorganisms in the Southern Ocean have been overlooked since their discovery in 2000. The present study identify taxonomy and quantify the relative abundance of proteorhodopsin-bearing bacteria and proteorhodopsin gene …

Influence of Estuarine Water on the Microbial Community Structure of Patagonian Fjords

Fjords are sensitive areas affected by climate change and can act as a natural laboratory to study microbial ecological processes. The Chilean Patagonian fjords (41–56°S), belonging to the Subantarctic ecosystem (46–60°S), make up one of the world's …

Microaerobic conditions in anaerobic sludge promote changes in bacterial composition favouring biodegradation of polymeric siloxanes

Microaeration changes the native anaerobic microbial community composition allowing the degradation of polydimethylsiloxanes and releasing volatile siloxanes into biogas.