A significant proportion of the Earth's surface is desert or in the process of desertification.
The extreme environmental conditions that characterize these areas result in a surface that …

Permafrost constitutes a major portion of the terrestrial cryosphere of the Earth and is a
unique ecological niche for cold-adapted microorganisms. There is a relatively high …

Microbial soil communities are active players in the biogeochemical cycles, impacting soil
fertility and interacting with aboveground organisms. Although soil microbial diversity has …

Understanding the factors that modulate bacterial community assembly in natural soils is a
longstanding challenge in microbial community ecology. In this work, we compared two …

Some of the coldest and driest permafrost soils on Earth are located in the high-elevation
McMurdo Dry Valleys (MDVs) of Antarctica, but little is known about the permafrost microbial …

Abstract Background The Antarctic continent is considered the coldest and driest place on
earth with simple ecosystems, devoid of higher plants. Soils in the ice-free regions of …

Dispersal is a critical yet poorly understood factor underlying macroecological patterns in
microbial communities. Airborne microbial transport is assumed to occupy a central role in …

Most of the Earth's biosphere is characterized by low temperatures (< 5° C) and cold-
adapted microorganisms are widespread. These psychrophiles have evolved a complex …

The Antarctica Dry Valleys are regarded as the coldest hyperarid desert system on Earth.
While a wide variety of environmental stressors including very low minimum temperatures …

Drylands are the largest terrestrial biome on Earth and a ubiquitous feature is desert
pavement terrain, comprising rocks embedded in the mineral soil surface. Quartz and other …