Soil microbial communities of Antarctic islands Raw sequence reads

In the study entitled Expanding Antarctic biogeography: Microbialecology of Antarctic island soils, the soil microbiomes of eleven islands surrounding the Antarctic continent were investigated, both in terms of their taxonomic composition and functional potential. In addition, several abiotic drivers of microbial community structure in these islands were identified.This study expands on the current knowledge of biodiversity in the Antarctic region by documenting the microbial ecology of several remote Antarctic islands that have not been studied previously. As global warming continues to threaten many of these unique biomes, knowledge of their ecology will be crucial to future bioconservation efforts.