Microbial Diversities and Nutrient Profiling Around Maldonado Station, Antarctica: Distribution, Abundance And Physiology Of Fungi, Algae And Bacteria

In general, data on terrestrial and marine microbiology in many parts of Antarctica including the Antarctica Peninsula is not well-established. Unlike many other continents, the geographical location and the extreme conditions in Antarctic promote the growth of a wide range of cold-loving extremophiles. Most of these precious microbes will remain untapped unless we put in extra effort to carry out mass isolation and conduct screening on them for useful compounds. These microbes may produce compounds which can be used to develop new medicines beneficial to humankind. The study will give insight into microbial diversity in Antarctica and factors that may contribute to their distribution and abundance. The base line data and physiology information are important and useful to the scientific community especially in global warming issues and bioactivity of novel compounds from the extremophiles. We believed that there is a need to have concerted effort to establish the biodiversity and to conserve microorganisms from the Antarctic. Some of these microorganisms may produce compounds with medical and industrial applications and need to be conserved.