A recent study has emphasized that species in polar regions will be affected by global warming.
The change in climatic conditions and warming in the Antarctica and Arctic will have a significant change even in the dominant cyanobacteria mats as the biogeochemical cycles in these regions.
The changes will result in change in the ecosystem as there will be an increase in carbon and nitrogen among living beings and inert species, toxin producing species thus bringing a change even in relationship among dominant species. Microbacteria mats and cyanobacteria from Antarctica region were used for the study. During the six-month observation, they were preserved in varying temperatures, including temperatures that normally occur in the regions of Antarctic and Artic due to the climatic changes. A significant change was noticed in the molecular and microscopic analysis in the species that dominated the mats.
While the cyanobacteria increased at the same temperature, the dominant species at low temperature disappeared. However, at higher temperatures, it was noticed the mats tend to destabilize as the tendency is inverted. It also means that other biological communities and microbial organisms will be affected, which means other organisms in the microsystem will also be affected. In short the whole polar ecosystem will be affected. The possibility of the dominant macrobiol mats, cyanobacteria produce microcystins toxin, due to changes in the climatic conditions. The toxins are scarce in the ecosystems in polar regions but the study shows that they appear in Arctic region could be fatal to several other organisms.
Source: http://www.nature.com
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