Frontiers | Geochemically Defined Space-for-Time Transects Successfully Capture Microbial Dynamics Along Lacustrine Chronosequences in a Polar Desert
The space-for-time substitution approach provides a valuable empirical assessment to infer temporal effects of disturbance from spatial gradients. Applied to predict the response of different ecosystems under current climate change scenarios, it remains poorly tested in microbial ecology studies, partly due to the trophic complexity of the ecosystems studied. The McMurdo Dry Valleys of Antarctica represent a trophically simple polar desert projected to experience drastic changes in water availability under current climate change predictions. We used this ideal model system to develop and valid...
Source: frontiersin.org