Tortula atrovirens (Sm.) Lindb. is an important component of biological soil crusts and possesses an extraordinary tolerance against desiccation in dryland habitats. However, knowledge of the organelle genome of this desiccation-tolerant (DT) moss is still lacking. Here, we assembled the first reported Tortula organelle genome and conducted a comprehensive analysis within the Pottiaceae family. T. atrovirens exhibited the second largest chloroplast genome (129,646 bp) within the Pottiaceae, whereas its mitogenome (105,877 bp) and those of other mosses were smaller in size compared to other land plants. The chloroplast and mitochondrial genomes of T. atrovirens were characterized by the expansion of IR boundaries and the absence of homologous recombination-mediated by large repeats. A total of 57 RNA editing sites were detected through mapping RNA-seq data. Moreover, the gene content and order were highly conserved among the Pottiaceae organelle genomes. Phylogenetic analysis showed that bryophytes are paraphyletic, with their three lineages (hornworts, mosses, and liverworts) and vascular plants forming successive sister clades. Timmiella anomala is clearly separated from the monophyletic Pottiaceae, and T. atrovirens is closely related to Syntrichia filaris within the Pottioideae. In addition, we detected four hypervariable regions for candidate-molecular markers. Our findings provide valuable insights into the organelle genomes of T. atrovirens and the evolutionary relationships within the Pottiaceae family, facilitating future discovery of DT genetic resources from bryophytes.

To understand the role of microorganisms in litter decomposition and nutrient cycling in volcanic forest ecosystem, we conducted in-situ litterbag decomposition experiment and used Illumina MiSeq high-throughput sequencing to analyze the response of bacterial community structure and diversity during the decomposition of litters from Larix gmelinii, Betula platyphylla and Populus davidiana, the dominant tree species in volcanic lava plateau of Wudalianchi. The results showed that mass remaining percentage of litters of three species after 18-month decomposition was 63.9%-68.1%. Litter of B. platyphylla decomposed the fastest, with significant difference in N, C:N, and N:P before and after decomposition. The richness of bacterial species and diversity index differed significantly among the three litters. Proteobacteria, Actinomycetes, and Bacteroidetes were the dominant bacterial groups at the phylum level, while Rhizobium, Sphingomonas, and Pseudomonas were the dominant groups at the genus level, with significant difference among the three litters. After 18 months, the dominant bacterial groups in litter tended to be consistent with those in volcanic lava platform soil. In the volcanic forest ecosystem, bacterial diversity and community structure were mainly affected by P, C:N, and N:P in the litter.
为了解火山森林生态系统中微生物在凋落物分解和营养循环中的作用,以五大连池火山熔岩台地森林优势树种落叶松、白桦、山杨为研究对象,采用凋落物袋野外原位分解和高通量测序方法,分析细菌群落结构及多样性对凋落物分解的响应。结果表明: 经过18个月的分解,3种植物叶片凋落物质量残留率为63.9%～68.1%,白桦叶片凋落物分解最快,分解前后的N含量、C∶N、N∶P存在显著差异。3种植物叶片凋落物的细菌物种数和多样性指数具有显著差异。变形菌门、放线菌门、拟杆菌门为优势菌门,根瘤菌属、鞘氨醇单胞菌属、假单胞菌属为优势菌属,且在3种凋落物间存在显著差异。分解18个月后,凋落物中优势细菌类群与火山熔岩台地土壤趋向一致,火山森林生态系统中凋落物细菌多样性和群落结构受到凋落物中P含量、C∶N和N∶P的影响。.

A major challenge in microbial ecology is to understand the principles and processes by which microbes associate and interact in community assemblages. Microbial communities in mountain glaciers are unique as first colonizers and nutrient enrichment drivers for downstream ecosystems. However, mountain glaciers have been distinctively sensitive to climate perturbations and have suffered a severe retreat over the past 40  years, compelling us to understand glacier ecosystems before their disappearance. This is the first study in an Andean glacier in Ecuador offering insights into the relationship of physicochemical variables and altitude on the diversity and structure of bacterial communities. Our study covered extreme Andean altitudes at the Cayambe Volcanic Complex, from 4,783 to 5,583 masl. Glacier soil and ice samples were used as the source for 16S rRNA gene amplicon libraries. We found (1) effects of altitude on diversity and community structure, (2) the presence of few significantly correlated nutrients to community structure, (3) sharp differences between glacier soil and glacier ice in diversity and community structure, where, as quantified by the Shannon γ-diversity distribution, the meta-community in glacier soil showed more diversity than in glacier ice; this pattern was related to the higher variability of the physicochemical distribution of variables in the former substrate, and (4) significantly abundant genera associated with either high or low altitudes that could serve as biomarkers for studies on climate change. Our results provide the first assessment of these unexplored communities, before their potential disappearance due to glacier retreat and climate change.

Understanding how animals respond to large-scale environmental changes is difficult to achieve because monitoring data are rarely available for more than the past few decades, if at all. Here, we demonstrate how a variety of palaeoecological proxies (e.g. isotopes, geochemistry and DNA) from an Andean Condor (Vultur gryphus) guano deposit from Argentina can be used to explore breeding site fidelity and the impacts of environmental changes on avian behaviour. We found that condors used the nesting site since at least approximately 2200 years ago, with an approximately 1000-year nesting frequency slowdown from ca 1650 to 650 years before the present (yr BP). We provide evidence that the nesting slowdown coincided with a period of increased volcanic activity in the nearby Southern Volcanic Zone, which resulted in decreased availability of carrion and deterred scavenging birds. After returning to the nest site ca 650 yr BP, condor diet shifted from the carrion of native species and beached marine animals to the carrion of livestock (e.g. sheep and cattle) and exotic herbivores (e.g. red deer and European hare) introduced by European settlers. Currently, Andean Condors have elevated lead concentrations in their guano compared to the past, which is associated with human persecution linked to the shift in diet.

The 2021 volcanic eruption at Fagradalsfjall, Iceland, provides a case study for examining an active collaboration between stakeholders in the development of an emergent volcanic site into a tourism destination from its inception. Stakeholders for this research include municipal actors and representatives; landowners; commercial tour companies and operators; the Federal Ministry of Tourism and Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, civil protection, and search and rescue. These stakeholder perceptions of the management process are analyzed within a responsible and sustainable tourism framework by a constant comparative method of interview text. The results bring to light issues deemed important during the site management and destination development process around concepts of authority, responsibility, safety, funding, and access. According to stakeholders, the management of the emergent Fagradalsfjall destination while positively perceived initially has gaps surrounding ongoing sustainable and responsible management that could have impacts on the participation of various stakeholder groups in the destination\'s ongoing development. This research has implications for other emergent volcanic tourist sites in Iceland and beyond.

Radar (SAR) satellites systematically acquire imagery that can be used for volcano monitoring, characterising magmatic systems and potentially forecasting eruptions on a global scale. However, exploiting the large dataset is limited by the need for manual inspection, meaning timely dissemination of information is challenging. Here we automatically process ~ 600,000 images of > 1000 volcanoes acquired by the Sentinel-1 satellite in a 5-year period (2015-2020) and use the dataset to demonstrate the applicability and limitations of machine learning for detecting deformation signals. Of the 16 volcanoes flagged most often, 5 experienced eruptions, 6 showed slow deformation, 2 had non-volcanic deformation and 3 had atmospheric artefacts. The detection threshold for the whole dataset is 5.9 cm, equivalent to a rate of 1.2 cm/year over the 5-year study period. We then use the large testing dataset to explore the effects of atmospheric conditions, land cover and signal characteristics on detectability and find that the performance of the machine learning algorithm is primarily limited by the quality of the available data, with poor coherence and slow signals being particularly challenging. The expanding dataset of systematically acquired, processed and flagged images will enable the quantitative analysis of volcanic monitoring signals on an unprecedented scale, but tailored processing will be needed for routine monitoring applications.
UNASSIGNED: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00445-022-01608-x.

Underwater volcanic eruptions are a type of natural contamination that affect all marine organisms at a local level. These eruptions usually begin and end a degassing stage of the volcano that, although they do not affect the magnitude of magma emanation, affect organisms to a lesser degree locally, such as cephalopods that due to their metabolism and trophic level, are good bioindicators of contamination. A total of 180 samples of three species of cephalopods were collected for the study: sixty Sepia officinalis, sixty Octopus vulgaris and sixty Loligo vulgaris in the area of the submarine volcano in El Hierro, Tenerife and Lanzarote in the Canary Islands (twenty samples per species in each location), and the metal concentrations (Al, Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Li, Ni, Pb and Zn) in each of the samples were analyzed. All species showed significant differences for all metals in El Hierro compared to Tenerife and Lanzarote. All the analyzed species from El Hierro had higher concentrations of the nine studied metals, this is due to the fact that they were caught near the Tagoro submarine volcano, which at the time was in a state of degassing and discharged many metal-rich compounds.

The network of lava tubes is one of the most unexploited natural wonders of the Galapagos Islands. Here, we provide the first morphological, mineralogical, and biogeochemical assessment of speleothems from volcanic caves of the Galapagos to understand their structure, composition, and origin, as well as to identify organic molecules preserved in speleothems. Mineralogical analyses revealed that moonmilk and coralloid speleothems from Bellavista and Royal Palm Caves were composed of calcite, opal-A, and minor amounts of clay minerals. Extracellular polymeric substances, fossilized bacteria, silica microspheres, and cell imprints on siliceous minerals evidenced microbe-mineral interactions and biologically-mediated silica precipitation. Alternating depositional layers between siliceous and carbonate minerals and the detection of biomarkers of surface vegetation and anthropogenic stressors indicated environmental and anthropogenic changes (agriculture, human waste, and cave visits) on these unique underground resources. Stable isotope analysis and Py-GC/MS were key to robustly identify biomarkers, allowing for implementation of future protection policies.

BACKGROUND: There are more than 1,000 active volcanoes worldwide with inhabitants within 100 km of them. Volcanoes spill several toxic metals and spew pollution through gasses, causing soil and water contamination. The dangerously active volcanoes place the nearby population at risk for volcanic hazards. This review aimed to determine whether people living in these volcanic areas have higher risk of cancer and more attention should be given to this danger.
METHODS: A systematic literature search was conducted of PUBMED, Science Direct, SCOPUS, Proquest, and Google Scholar, and from citation searching. We assessed the quality of the studies and extracted the incidence rate of cancer in the volcanic areas compared to non-volcanic areas.
RESULTS: The search identified 360 articles, with 11 studies meeting our selection criteria. The results reported the incidence of cancer in children was predominantly in volcanic areas with girls suffering as much as 1.4 per 100,000 per year. The highest cancer age standardized incidence rates for females, males, and overall calculation in volcanic areas were reported as 31.7/100,000/year in Catania, 10.34/100,000/year in Furnas, and 38.3/100,000/year in Catania-Messina-Enna for thyroid cancer. We observed the increasing incidence of carcinoma for some types of cancer in volcanic areas.
CONCLUSIONS: Cancer incidence in volcanic areas was higher than non-volcanic areas and it is caused by multifactorial conditions. The concentrations of hazardous elements of volcanic products vary among volcanoes and are related to the harmful risk for the inhabitants. The negative effects of volcanic products to human health should be given more consideration.

Glaciers constitute a polyextremophilic environment characterized by low temperatures, high solar radiation, a lack of nutrients, and low water availability. However, glaciers located in volcanic regions have special characteristics, since the volcanic foci provide them with heat and nutrients that allow the growth of microbial communities highly adapted to this environment. Most of the studies on these glacial ecosystems have been carried out in volcanic environments in the northern hemisphere, including Iceland and the Pacific Northwest. To better know, the microbial diversity of the underexplored glacial ecosystems and to check what their specific characteristics were, we studied the structure of bacterial communities living in volcanic glaciers in Deception Island, Antarctica, and in the Kamchatka peninsula. In addition to geographic coordinates, many other glacier environmental factors (like volcanic activity, altitude, temperature, pH, or ice chemical composition) that can influence the diversity and distribution of microbial communities were considered in this study. Finally, using their taxonomic assignments, an attempt was made to compare how different or similar are the biogeochemical cycles in which these microbiomes are involved.