Climatic and environmental constraints on aboveground-belowground linkages and diversity across a latitudinal gradient in Antarctica

In this project, we collected soil samples at 14 sites over a latitudinal gradient along the Antarctic Peninsula to determine the nature and strength of aboveground-belowground linkages in influencing soil community biogeography and diversity over a gradient of environmental and climatic conditions.

Soil microbial (bacteria, archaea, fungi) and invertebrate communities and a comprehensive suite of edaphic variables were sampled at all sites in soils underneath key aboveground habitat types (grass, moss, lichen, algae, and fellfield) to fully characterize diversity and the soil environment. From multiple sites over a latitudinal gradient along the Antarctic Peninsula, we collected up to 20 soil and vegetation samples from each of the available aboveground cover types (including moss, grass, fellfield, lichen, and algae).