Cryosphere Microbiome Biobanks for Mountain Glaciers in China

Anzhou Ma, Jiejie Zhang, Guohua Liu, Xuliang Zhuang and Guoqiang Zhuang
Additional contact information
Anzhou Ma: Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, China
Jiejie Zhang: Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, China
Guohua Liu: Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, China
Xuliang Zhuang: Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, China
Guoqiang Zhuang: Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, China

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 5, 1-18

Abstract: The glaciers in China have an important role as one of the most climate-sensitive constituents of the Tibetan Plateau which is known as the Asian Water Tower. Although the cryosphere is one of the most extreme environments for organisms, the soils of the glacier foreland harbor surprisingly rich microbiomes. A large amount of accelerated glacier retreat accompanied by global warming will not only raise the sea level, but it will also lead to the massive release of a considerable amount of carbon stored in these glaciers. The responses of glacier microbiomes could alter the biogeochemical cycle of carbon and have a complex impact on climate change. Thus, understanding present-day and future glacier microbiome changes is crucial to assess the feedback on climate change and the impacts on ecosystems. To this end, we discuss here the diversity and biogeochemical functions of the microbiomes in Chinese mountain glacier ecosystems.

Keywords: glaciers; climate warming; microbiome; microbial diversity; carbon cycle (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/5/2903/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/5/2903/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:5:p:2903-:d:762409

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().