Microbial Composition and Biogeochemistry in Rocky Mountain Snowpack
- ISBN-10
- ISBN-13
- 9798438767930
- Category
- Climatic changes
- Pages
- 180
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2022
- Author
- Abigail S. Hoffman
Description
Anthropogenic climate change is progressively reducing mountain snow cover and duration globally. While the importance of mountain snow as a storage mechanism for water and nutrients has been recognized, microbial biogeochemical activity is largely unexplored. However, dynamic microbial communities in polar snow suggest that seasonal snow has the potential to support active microbial communities that transform nutrients and fluxes to terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. The objective of this research was to investigate microbial communities in seasonal mountain snow and their contributions to biogeochemical cycling. We first measured potential enzyme activity in seasonal snow and compared activity with values measured in lentic and lotic waters. We found late spring snow had higher potential enzyme activity than that observed in freshwater streams and lakes and likely alters organic and inorganic inputs to downstream ecosystems. We then sequenced bacterial and fungal communities and found that these communities shift over the melt season from a community representative of deposition sources to a more snow resource-driven community. Next, we conducted a carbon and nutrient addition experiment to investigate limitations on microbial activity and communities in seasonal snow. We found that nutrient and carbon additions altered bacterial and fungal community composition but not activity. Finally, we investigated perennial snowfields and found them to be a source of carbon, nutrients and microbes to downstream ecosystems. Together, results from these studies illustrate that midlatitude snow supports complex microbial ecosystems that likely contribute vital resources to terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems in late spring.
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