The overall objective of CAVICE project is Biodiversity assessment and monitoring.

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Objective 1.

Investigation of functional diversity and metabolic activity of cave ice microbiome from SC and SV ice caves and VD and CH glacier caves.

​       1.1. Sampling of ice sediments from SC, SV, VD, MY ice/glacier caves (2016 - 2017);

       1.2. Metagenome and metatranscriptom reconstitutution of all ice/glacier caves using NGS (2016 - 2018)
 

Objective 2. Survey of past and present climate variations impact on total and active microbiome from ice caves.

       2.1. Past climate stable isotopebased reconstruction in cave ice (2016 - 2017);

       2.2. Analysis of climate impact variations on cave ice microbiota (2017 - 2018).

Objective 3. Anthropogenic pollution impact on structural and functional diversity of cave ice
microbiome.

       3.1. Chemical analysis of cave ice cores from all ice/glacier caves (2016 - 2017);

       3.2. Identification of pollution biomarkers for the anthropogenic impact on cave ice (2017 - 2018).

Objective 4. Identification of novel psychrophilic/psychrotolerant strains of biotechnological potential.
       4.1. Screening for metal (Au/Ag/Fe) nanoparticle-producing strains from ice/glacier caves (2016 - 2018);

       4.2. Characterization and separation of biosynthesized metal nanoparticles (2017 - 2018)