Table 1 Location of each glacier sampled with corresponding estimated diversity and abundances of bacterial communities. Values present averages (bold) as well as ranges (in brackets). Letters show significance levels comparing diversity estimates by pairwise comparisons using the Wilcoxon rank-sum test

[16S rRNA gene copies L⁻¹ _{melted snow}]

[16S rRNA gene copies m⁻²_snow]

AF

79.7669° N

1.68

1.5e+5

2.6e+6

22.8475° E

(1.33–3.35)^a

(3.3e+4–1.2e+6)

(6.1e+4–2.2e+7)

ALB

78.8719° N

3.17

8.4e+5

1.1e+7

12.15916° E

(1.29–4.20)^b

(3.3e+4–6.7e+6)

(7.1e+4–9.3e+7)

HDF

79.02936° N

2.92

5.0e+5

6.91e+6

13.53098° E

(1.25–3.89)^b

(2.0e+4–4.3e+6)

(1.4e+4–6.0e+7)

KVG

78.78049° N

3.61

4.3e+5

4.0e+6

13.15344° E

(1.65–4.34)^b

(3.0e+4–3.6e+6)

(6.4e+4–1.9e+7)

LF

78.69132° N

2.36

1.2e+5

1.0e+6

17.14985° E

(1.12–4.00)^b

(4.2e+4–2.6e+5)

(1.5e+4–3.2e+6)