Summary
FreshHorn project intends to establish a comprehensive microbiome dataset that will allow us to shed light on the importance of climate change and both direct and indirect anthropogenic influences on the prokaryotic communities of Hornsund lakes. Obtained results will be complementary to those that have been obtained in the same area within the Limnology monitoring in Hornsund (RIS 11746), focusing on organic matter metabolism and greenhouse gas emissions. The FreshHorn team will evaluate whether wildlife (i.e., birds and fish) serve as a reservoir of ARGs and ARBs with potential to spread through horizontal gene transfer in bacterial population of lakes. Briefly, we intend to evaluate i. the genetic and phenotypic evidence of antibiotic resistance in microbiomes from Hornsund lakes (addressing both abiotic and biotic matrices), and ii. the importance of migratory bird colonies on freshwater prokaryotic communities. These overarching goals will be reaching by characterizing microbiomes along a gradient of bird-impacted freshwaters differing in the distance from the coast, connectivity to glaciers and biological productivity.

Project Partners
• Institute of Geophysics, Polish Academy of Science (IGF-PAN)