Unrecognized diversity and distribution of soil algae from Maritime Antarctica (Fildes Peninsula, King George Island)

We investigated topsoil samples from a temporal gradient of deglaciation and soil development in a glacier forefield located at Fildes Peninsula in the south-west of King George Island, Maritime Antarctica. To better identify Antarctic algae with a cosmopolitan distribution, we also included an exemplar temperate soil site for comparisons. We employed the ITS2 rDNA as a high-resolution molecular marker in conjunction with next-generation deep sequencing (Illumina MiSeq). Group-targeted PCR primers, for green algae (Chlorophyta) and Xanthophyceae (Stramenopiles), were used.