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Human activity over natural inputs determines the bacterial community in an ice core from the Muztag ata glacier

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Abstract

Ice core provides a valuable vertical timeline of past climates and anthropogenic activities. Environmental proxies have been widely used in these studies, but there are few biological indicators available. To address this gap, we investigated the bacterial community from a 74 m ice core of Muztag ata glacier on the Tibetan Plateau to link biological indicators with past climate and anthropogenic activities. By analyzing the portion of the ice core with environmental proxies available (corresponding to 1907 to 1991), we observed an increase in bacterial richness throughout the ice core, which was associated with higher NH +4 , an indicator of agricultural development. The bacterial community was jointly determined by human activity, natural input, and air temperature, with a strong human influence after the 1950s. Furthermore, the relative abundance of animal gut-associated bacteria, including Aerococcaceae, Nocardiaceae, Muribaculaceae, and Lachnospiraceae, was associated with livestock number changes in the Central Asian region. Together with other bacterial lineages, they jointly explained 59.8% of the livestock number changes. This study provides quantitative evidence of the associations between bacterial indicators and past climate and human activities, highlighting the potential of using bacterial proxies for ice core studies.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the National Key Research and Development Plans (Grant No. 2021YFC2300904), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. U21A20176 and 42330410), and the Second Tibetan Plateau Scientific Expedition and Research Program (STEP) (Grant No. 2019QZKK0503).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Tibetan Plateau Earth System, Resources and Environment (TPESRE), Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China

    Yongqin Liu, Keshao Liu, Baiqing Xu, Bixi Guo & Tandong Yao

  2. Center for Pan-third Pole Environment, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, 730013, China

    Yongqin Liu, Mukan Ji & Tandong Yao

  3. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China

    Yongqin Liu, Baiqing Xu & Tandong Yao

  4. State Key Laboratory for Marine Environmental Science, Xiamen University, Xiamen, 361102, China

    Nianzhi Jiao

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  1. Yongqin Liu
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  2. Nianzhi Jiao
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  4. Keshao Liu
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Correspondence to Yongqin Liu.

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Liu, Y., Jiao, N., Ji, M. et al. Human activity over natural inputs determines the bacterial community in an ice core from the Muztag ata glacier. Sci. China Earth Sci. (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11430-022-1282-x

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