The last 50 years of climate-induced melting of the Maliy Aktru glacier (Altai Mountains, Russia) revealed in a primary ecological succession

In this article, we report and discuss the results obtained from a survey of plants,
microorganisms (bacteria and fungi), and soil elements along a chronosequence in the
first 600 m of the Maliy Aktru glacier's forefront (Altai Mountains, Russia). Many
glaciers of the world show effects of climate change. Nonetheless, except for some
local reports, the ecological effects of deglaciation have been poorly studied and
have not been quantitatively assessed in the Altai Mountains. Here, we studied the
ecological changes of plants, fungi, bacteria, and soil elements that take the form of
a primary ecological succession and that took place over the deglaciated soil of the
Maliy Aktru glacier during the last 50 year. According to our measurements, the glacier
lost about 12 m per year during the last 50 years. Plant succession shows clear
signs of changes along the incremental distance from the glacier forefront. The analysis
of the plant ?-and
?-diversity
confirmed an expected increase of them with increasing
distance from the glacier forefront. Moreover, the analysis of ?-diversity
confirmed the hypothesis of the presence of three main stages of the plant succession:
(a) initial (pioneer species) from 30 to 100 m; (b) intermediate (r-selected
species)
from 110 to 120-150 m; and (c) final (K-selected
species) from 150 to 550. Our
study also shows that saprotrophic communities of fungi are widely distributed in the
glacier retreating area with higher relative abundances of saprotroph ascomycetes at
early successional stages. The evolution of a primary succession is also evident for
bacteria, soil elements, and CO2 emission and respiration. The development of biological
communities and the variation in geochemical parameters represent an irrefutable
proof that climate change is altering soils that have been long covered by ice.