Glacier Retreat Results in Loss of Fungal Diversity

Masaharu Tsuji, Warwick F. Vincent, Yukiko Tanabe and Masaki Uchida
Additional contact information
Masaharu Tsuji: Department of Materials Chemistry, National Institute of Technology, Asahikawa College, Asahikawa 071-8142, Japan
Warwick F. Vincent: Département de Biologie, Université Laval, Québec, QC G1V 0A6, Canada
Yukiko Tanabe: Biology Group, National Institute of Polar Research (NIPR), Tachikawa 190-8158, Japan
Masaki Uchida: Biology Group, National Institute of Polar Research (NIPR), Tachikawa 190-8158, Japan

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 3, 1-8

Abstract: Walker Glacier near the northern coast of Ellesmere Island in the Canadian High Arctic (terrestrial margin of the ‘Last Ice Area’) is undergoing rapid ice attrition in response to climate change. We applied culture and molecular methods to investigate fungal diversity at the terminus of this glacier. Analysis of the mycoflora composition showed that the Walker Glacier isolates separated into two clusters: the surface of the glacier ice and the glacier foreland. The recently exposed sediments of the foreland had a lower fungal diversity and different species from those on the ice, with the exception of five species that occurred in both habitats. This loss of glacial ice in the Arctic is therefore resulting in the loss of habitats for cold-dwelling fungal species. Fungal diversity is a potentially rich biological resource of glacial ecosystems, with unique taxa. The rapid loss of these glacial habitats underscores the urgency for genomic surveys of fungal diversity in the High Arctic, and the need for further isolation of strains as well as cryopreservation of environmental micro-biome samples for future research and conservation.

Keywords: glacier retreat; walker glacier; endangered fungi; climate change; mycoflora (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/3/1617/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/3/1617/ (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:3:p:1617-:d:738531

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 ().