Microbial Succession in Glacial Foreland Soils of the Canadian Subarctic

The Canadian arctic has experienced increasing temperatures over the past century leading to heightened rate of glacial retreat. Glacial retreat leads to subsequent exposure of foreland soils to atmospheric conditions, thus creating a sequence of change in these ecosystems. Microbes are critical for soil development and nutrient dynamics in glacial systems as they are the primary colonizers of these soils and have been demonstrated to play a role in geochemical weathering and nutrient cycling beneath the glacier. Although viable microbial communities exist beneath glaciers and are known to be important for the glacial ecosystem, the impact of glacial retreat on these communities and development of the resulting foreland ecosystem is not well understood. Here, we investigate how microbial communities respond to changing conditions brought on by glacial retreat and whether a pattern of succession, such as those found in well characterized plant systems, occurs along a soil foreland in these microbial communities. We hypothesis that time since deglaciation is the major determinant of structure and composition of microbial assemblages. To test this, soil samples were collected along two glacier forelands, Trapridge Glacier and Duke River Glacier, located in Kluane National Park, Yukon Territory. Chronosequence dating of satellite images using geographic information system software revealed sampling sites have been ice-free from ~30 years to over 60 years. Soil chemistry analysis of major nutrients revealed no change in chemical parameters along the chronosequence, suggesting that presence of microbes after exposure from subglacial environments does not significantly alter soil characteristics in the timeframe observed. Furthermore, next-generation IonTorrentTM sequencing performed on soil samples revealed over five million sequencing reads, suggesting prominent microbial presence within these soils. Further analysis on sequencing data is needed to establish the influence, if any, that microbes have in the development of the soils after deglaciation. Overall, this study investigates the effect global climate change has on the fragile glacier ecosystems of the Canadian arctic by identifying the unique role microbes have as the primary colonizers of these systems.