Biodiversity and ecophysiology of bacteria associated with Antarctic sea ice

A total of 135 bacterial strains were isolated from congelation (land fast) sea ice samples and ice algae biomass samples obtained from the coastal areas of the Vestfold Hills in East Antarctica (68 degrees S, 78 degrees E) during the summers of 1992-95. The sea ice isolates, along with reference strains, were analysed by numerical taxonomy and for DNA base composition in order to determine the biodiversity of sea ice bacteria. From these analyses 22 clusters of strains (phena) were obtained with most phena apparently representing novel bacterial taxa. The sea ice isolates could be categorized into three groups based on their ecophysiology: 1) slightly halophilic, psychrophilic bacteria often possessing fastidious growth requirements and which were predominantly isolated from sea ice algae biomass or from algae-rich ice samples; 2) halotolerant and psychrotolerant bacteria; and 3) non-halophilic bacteria isolated primarily from upper sections of congelation ice and other ice samples with low levels of algal biomass.