New record of moss and thermophilic bacteria species and physico-chemical properties of geothermal soils on the northwest slope of Mt. Melbourne (Antarctica) in 2002

Melbourne (northwest Victoria Land, continental Antarctica) to determine physico-chemical properties, isolate existing strains of etherotrophic microorganisms, and identify the moss species through molecular genetic techniques. Surface soils features such as temperatures, grain-size, pH, moisture content and isolated genera of bacteria, generally corresponded to those previously reported for other geothermal site in Victoria Land.

However, when compared with chemical characteristics of warm substrata from these sites, soils from the northwest slope of Mt. Melbourne showed lower contents of total N and water-extractable PO43- and K+ and relatively high concentrations of Na, Fe, Mn and of potentially toxic elements such as Cd and Pb. Preliminary results indicate that a new species of thermophilic bacteria growing in Fe-enriched medium was isolated.