Corpse, Sweet Corpse

Corpse, Sweet Corpse

By: Alvaro Sanchez

In the extreme environments of the Antarctic Dry Valleys, there are preserved corpses of seals that offer a unique and stable environment for the microorganisms living in the soil underneath. The researchers of this study attempted to test the claim that microbial communities in the Dry Valleys are so slow-growing that millennia must pass before significant ecosystem changes occur. To do this, they transported a 250-year mummified seal carcass and over the course of four years, tested the bacterial diversity of the soil underneath it. Sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene revealed that bacterial communities experienced great changes in diversity after introduction of the seal corpse, as shown by the figure. The results of this experiment demonstrated that manipulating the environmental conditions of an ecosystem causes noticeable changes in biodiversity of bacteria, even in locations of extreme cold and dryness.

Figure from G. Taio, C.K. Lee, I.R. McDonald, D.A. Cowan, & S.C. Cary. 2012. This figure shows the bacterial phyla diversity that was present in three different sites in terms of percentage of their abundance. Site a was an uncovered control site (open area), site b was the original seal-covered area, and site c was the area where the seal was transferred. 

 

Original Article: Tiao G, Lee CK, McDonald IR, Cowan DA, Cary SC. (2012). Rapid microbial response to the presence of an ancient relic in the Antarctic Dry Valleys. Nat Commun 3(660): 1-8.