Fig. 3: Microbial habitat classes and metabolic capabilities vary across the glacial forelands.

a Proportion of specialist, intermediate and generalist microbes classified based on 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing and metagenome-assembled-genomes (MAGs) across the Antarctic and Swiss glacier forelands. b Boxplots showing the relative abundance of selected MAGs (n = 114) predicted to be capable of oxidising lithic and atmospheric substrates across the Antarctic and Swiss glacier forelands. Statistical differences among age groups within MAG families were assessed using a two-sided Kruskal-Wallis test. A Dunn’s post-hoc test with Benjamini–Hochberg correction was applied to identify significant pairs, with asterisks denoting significance. Exact p-values are provided in the source data. Box plots centre line represents the median, the box bounds denote the 25th and 75th percentiles, and the whiskers extend to the most extreme data points within 1.5 × the interquartile range. c Scatter plots showing average gene copy per organism of topsoil (0–10 cm) based on short read analysis of key metabolic marker genes, with a two-sided contrasts generalised linear model for the Swiss and Antarctic glacier sites (n = 24). The fitted line represents the linear relationship across age class categories for visualization, with shaded ribbons showing 95% confidence intervals. Asterisks denote significance, and exact p-values and model families are shown in Supplementary Data 3. The same is shown for subsoil samples (10−50 cm) of the Swiss glacier (n = 16). d Proportion of carbon fixation and energy conversion marker genes across the Antarctic and Swiss glacier forelands based on short read analysis.