The Antarctic terrestrial macrobiota are highly endemic and biogeographically structured, but whether this also holds true for microbial groups remains poorly understood. We studied the biogeographic patterns of Antarctic cyanobacteria from benthic microbial mats sampled in 84 lakes from two sub‐Antarctic islands, as well as from eight Antarctic Conservation Biogeographic Regions (ACBRs) which were previously defined based mainly on macroscopic taxa. Analysis of 16S rRNA gene sequences revealed that Antarctic and sub‐Antarctic lakes host significantly different cyanobacterial communities, yet that the bioregionalization pattern did not correspond to the division into ACBRs. Both Antarctic and sub‐Antarctic lakes contain a high number of potentially endemic taxa (41% of the total diversity), of which 33.3% attain a relative abundance of < 1%. Our findings highlight the uniqueness of Antarctic microbiota and the need for increased protection of inland waters in both Antarctica and the sub‐Antarctic islands.

中文翻译：

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来自底栖垫的（亚）南极特有蓝藻非常罕见，且地理分布有限


南极陆地大型生物群具有高度地方性和生物地理结构，但是这是否也适用于微生物群体仍然知之甚少。我们研究了从来自两个亚南极岛屿的 84 个湖泊以及之前主要根据宏观分类单元定义的八个南极生物地理保护区 (ACBR) 的 84 个湖泊中采样的底栖微生物垫中的南极蓝细菌的生物地理模式。 16S rRNA 基因序列分析表明，南极和亚南极湖泊拥有显着不同的蓝藻群落，但生物区域化模式与 ACBR 的划分并不对应。南极和亚南极湖泊都含有大量潜在特有类群（占总多样性的 41%），其中 33.3% 的相对丰度达到 < 1%。我们的研究结果强调了南极微生物群的独特性以及加强对南极洲和亚南极岛屿内陆水域保护的必要性。