Lake Fryxell is a perennially ice-covered lake in the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica, with a sharp oxycline in a water column that is density stabilized by a gradient in salt concentration. Dissolved oxygen falls from 20 mg liter ⁻¹ to undetectable over one vertical meter from 8.9- to 9.9-m depth. We provide the first description of the benthic mat community that falls within this oxygen gradient on the sloping floor of the lake, using a combination of micro- and macroscopic morphological descriptions, pigment analysis, and 16S rRNA gene bacterial community analysis. Our work focused on three macroscopic mat morphologies that were associated with different parts of the oxygen gradient: (i) “cuspate pinnacles” in the upper hyperoxic zone, which displayed complex topography and were dominated by phycoerythrin-rich cyanobacteria attributable to the genus Leptolyngbya and a diverse but sparse assemblage of pennate diatoms; (ii) a less topographically complex “ridge-pit” mat located immediately above the oxic-anoxic transition containing Leptolyngbya and an increasing abundance of diatoms; and (iii) flat prostrate mats in the upper anoxic zone, dominated by a green cyanobacterium phylogenetically identified as Phormidium pseudopriestleyi and a single diatom, Diadesmis contenta . Zonation of bacteria was by lake depth and by depth into individual mats. Deeper mats had higher abundances of bacteriochlorophylls and anoxygenic phototrophs, including Chlorobi and Chloroflexi . This suggests that microbial communities form assemblages specific to niche-like locations. Mat morphologies, underpinned by cyanobacterial and diatom composition, are the result of local habitat conditions likely defined by irradiance and oxygen and sulfide concentrations.

Cyanobacterial mats are commonly found in freshwater ecosystems throughout the polar regions. Most mats are multilayered three-dimensional structures

The undulating ice of the McMurdo Ice Shelf, Southern Victoria Land, supports one of the largest networks of ice-based, multiyear meltwater pond habitats in Antarctica, where microbial mats are abundant and contribute most of the biomass and biodiversity. We used 16S rRNA and 18S rRNA gene high-throughput sequencing to compare variance of the community structure in microbial mats within and between ponds with different salinities and pH. Proteobacteria and Cyanobacteria were the most abundant phyla, and composition at OTU level was highly specific for the meltwater ponds with strong community sorting along the salinity gradient. Our study provides the first detailed evaluation of eukaryote communities for the McMurdo Ice Shelf using the 18S rRNA gene. They were dominated by Ochrophyta, Chlorophyta and Ciliophora, consistent with previous microscopic analyses, but many OTUs belonging to less well-described heterotrophic protists from Antarctic ice shelves were also identified including Amoebozoa, Rhizaria and Labyrinthulea. Comparison of 16S and 18S rRNA gene communities showed that the Eukaryotes had lower richness and greater similarity between ponds in comparison with Bacteria and Archaea communities on the McMurdo Ice shelf. While there was a weak correlation between community dissimilarity and geographic distance, the congruity of microbial assemblages within ponds, especially for Bacteria and Archaea, implies strong habitat filtering in ice shelf meltwater pond ecosystems, especially due to salinity. These findings help to understand processes that are important in sustaining biodiversity and the impact of climate change on ice-based aquatic habitats in Antarctica.

Freshwater ecosystems are considered hotspots of biodiversity in Antarctic polar deserts. Anticipated warming is expected to change the hydrology of these systems due to increased meltwater and reduction of ice cover, with implications for environmental conditions and physical connectivity between habitats. Using 16S rRNA gene sequencing, we evaluated microbial mat and planktonic communities within a connected freshwater system in the McMurdo Wright Valley, Antarctica, to determine the roles of connectivity and habitat conditions in controlling microbial assemblage composition. We examined communities from glacial Lake Brownworth, the perennially ice-covered Lake Vanda and the Onyx River, which connects the two. In Lake Vanda, we found distinct microbial assemblages occupying sub-habitats at different lake depths, while the communities from Lake Brownworth and Onyx River were structurally similar. Despite the higher physical connectivity and dispersal opportunities between bacterial communities in the shallow parts of the system, environmental abiotic conditions dominated over dispersal in driving community structure. Functional metabolic pathway predictions suggested differences in the functional gene potential between the microbial mat communities located in shallower and deeper water depths. The findings suggest that increasing temperatures and meltwater due to future climate change will affect bacterial diversity and functioning in Antarctic freshwater ecosystems.