Microbial mats promote surface water retention in proglacial streams

Abstract

The retreat of glaciers opens up large proglacial areas which become available for colonization and primary succession. Yet, factors that contribute to habitability during early succession in proglacial areas remain poorly understood. In proglacial streams, biofilms, which are matrix-enclosed microbial communities, colonize the streambed and grow into millimeter thick mats. Particularly in proglacial streams draining relatively flat and stable lateral terraces, these biofilms may augment habitability by reducing water scarcity through clogging of the streambed. To quantitatively address this phenomenon, we performed streamside flume experiments and conceived the idealized terrace model, which models stream length elongation as a function of microbially induced clogging, sediment hydraulic properties, stream roughness, slope, width and inflow. Significant stream elongation, and hence habitabilization, occurs when clogging suffices to induce unsaturated conditions below the streambed. Considering multiple terrace configurations with educated parameter bounds, we found a wide range of possible elongation, ranging from none to 100-fold. Sensitivity analysis suggests that sediment hydraulic properties mostly contribute to variability in stream elongation due to biofilm induced clogging. Taken together, we here show that microbial communities can significantly extend the habitability of proglacial stream ecosystems by inducing streambed clogging and retaining water. This is relevant in light of the rapid glacier retreat.