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| DOI | 10.1371/JOURNAL.PONE.0317571 | ||||
| Año | 2025 | ||||
| Tipo | artículo de investigación |
Citas Totales
Autores Afiliación Chile
Instituciones Chile
% Participación
Internacional
Autores
Afiliación Extranjera
Instituciones
Extranjeras
Ice-free areas are habitats for most of Antarctica’s terrestrial biodiversity. Although fungal communities are an important element of these habitats, knowledge of their assemblages and ecological functions is still limited. Herein, we investigated the diversity, composition, and ecological functionality of fungal communities inhabiting sediments from ice-free areas across pristine and anthropogenically impacted sites in the Fildes Peninsula on King George Island, Antarctica. Samples were collected from both pristine and disturbed areas. We used the internal transcribed spacer (ITS1) region via Illumina sequencing of 34 sediment samples for fungal identification. The Ascomycota (14.6%) and Chytridiomycota (11.8%) were the most dominant phyla, followed by Basidiomycota (8.1%), Rozellomycota (7.0%), Mucoromycota (4.0%), while 34.9% of the fungal diversity remained unidentified. From a total of 1073 OTUs, 532 OTUs corresponded to 114 fungal taxa at the genus level, and 541 OTUs remained unassigned taxonomically. The highest diversity, with 18 genera, was detected at site A-3. At the genus level, there was no preference for either pristine or disturbed sites. The most widely distributed genera were Betamyces (Chytridiomycota), occurring in 29 of the 34 sites, and Thelebolus (Ascomycota), detected in 8 pristine sites and 7 disturbed sites. The Glomeraceae gen. incertae sedis was more common in disturbed sites. A total of 23 different ecological guilds were recorded, with the most abundant guilds being undefined saprotrophs, plant pathogens, plant saprotrophs, pollen saprotrophs, and endophytes. The fungal communities did not show significant differences between pristine and disturbed sites, suggesting that the anthropogenic impact is either not too intense or prolonged, that the spatial distance between the sampled sites is small, and/or that the environmental factors are similar. Although our study revealed a high fungal diversity with various ecological specializations within these communities, nearly one-third of the diversity could not be assigned to any specific taxonomic category. These findings highlight the need for further taxonomic research on fungal species inhabiting ice-free areas. Without identifying the species present, it is difficult to assess potential biodiversity loss due to environmental changes and/or human activities.
| Ord. | Autor | Género | Institución - País |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Garnica, Sigisfredo | - |
Universidad Austral de Chile - Chile
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| 2 | Soto-Rauch, Genaro | - |
Universidad Austral de Chile - Chile
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| 3 | Leffler, Ellen M. | - |
University of Utah School of Medicine - Estados Unidos
Univ Utah Sch Med - Estados Unidos Universidad del Bío Bío - Chile |
| 4 | Núñez, Christian | - |
Universidad del Bío Bío - Chile
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| 5 | Gómez-Espinoza, Jonhatan | - |
Liceo Técnico Profesional Diego Portales - Chile
Liceo Tecn Profes Diego Port - Chile |
| 6 | Romero, Enzo | - |
Universidad del Bío Bío - Chile
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| 7 | Ahumada-Rudolph, Ramón | - |
Universidad del Bío Bío - Chile
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| 8 | Cabrera-Pardo, Jaime R. | - |
Universidad del Bío Bío - Chile
Roseman University of Health Sciences - Estados Unidos Roseman Univ Hlth Sci - Estados Unidos |
| Fuente |
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| Universidad del Bío-Bío |
| Instituto Antártico Chileno (INACH) |
| VRIP |
| Institut chilien de l'Antarctique |
| Agradecimiento |
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| Instituto Ant\u00E1rtico Chileno (INACH), grant INACH RT_16-21. J.R.C-P and VRIP - Universidad del Bio Bio, grants GI2310643 and EQ2326450. We thank B. Romero for helping with the statistical analyses and C. Riquelme for designing the map, as well as several pre- and postgraduate students for processing samples in our labs. We also thank two anonymous reviewers for the useful comments, which have helped to improve our manuscript. |
| Instituto Antartico Chileno (INACH), grant INACH RT_16-21. J.R.C-P and VRIP - Universidad del Bio Bio, grants GI2310643 and EQ2326450. |