Biogeosciences, 13, 659–674, 2016 www.biogeosciences.net/13/659/2016/ doi:10.5194/bg-13-659-2016 © Author(s) 2016. CC Attribution 3.0 License. Controls on microalgal community structures in cryoconite holes upon high-Arctic glaciers, Svalbard T. R. Vonnahme1,2,a, M. Devetter1,3, J. D. Žárský1,4, M. Šabacká1,5, and J. Elster1,6 1Centre for Polar Ecology, Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, Ceskéˇ Budejovice,ˇ Czech Republic 2University of Konstanz, Constance, Germany 3Biology Centre of the Academy of Science of the Czech Republic, Institute of Soil Biology, Ceskéˇ Budejovice,ˇ Czech Republic 4Department of Ecology, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic 5British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge, UK 6Institute of Botany, Academy of the Science of the Czech Republic, Treboˇ n,ˇ Czech Republic anow at: Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology, Bremen, Germany Correspondence to: J. Elster (
[email protected]) Received: 27 May 2015 – Published in Biogeosciences Discuss.: 29 July 2015 Revised: 8 January 2016 – Accepted: 14 January 2016 – Published: 3 February 2016 Abstract. Glaciers are known to harbor surprisingly com- with high sediment loads, high N : P ratios, and a high impact plex ecosystems. On their surface, distinct cylindrical holes of nutrient input by bird guano, as a proxy for nutrients. In filled with meltwater and sediments are considered hot spots these environments autochthonous nitrogen fixation appears for microbial life. The present paper addresses possible bi- to be negligible. Selective wind transport of Oscillatoriales ological interactions within the community of prokaryotic via soil and dust particles is proposed to explain their domi- cyanobacteria and eukaryotic microalgae (microalgae) and nance in cryoconites further away from the glacier margins.