Solar panel surfaces can be colonized by microorganisms adapted to desiccation, temperature fluctuations and solar radiation. Although the taxonomic and functional composition of these communities has been studied, the microbial colonization process remains unclear. In the present work, we have monitored this microbial colonization process during 24 months by performing weekly measurements of the photovoltaic efficiency, carrying out 16S rRNA gene high‐throughput sequencing, and studying the effect of antimicrobial compounds on the composition of the microbial biocenosis. This is the first time a long‐term study of the colonization process of solar panels has been performed, and our results reveal that species richness and biodiversity exhibit seasonal fluctuations and that there is a trend towards an increase or decrease of specialist (solar panel‐adapted) and generalist taxa, respectively. On the former, extremophilic bacterial genera Deinococcus, Hymenobacter and Roseomonas and fungal Neocatenulostroma, Symmetrospora and Sporobolomyces tended to dominate the biocenosis; whereas Lactobacillus sp or Stemphyllium exhibited a decreasing trend. This profile was deeply altered by washing the panels with chemical agents (Virkon), but this did not lead to an increase of the solar panels efficiency. Our results show that solar panels are extreme environments that force the selection of a particular microbial community.

中文翻译：

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光伏面板表面上的极端微生物群落：为期两年的研究。

太阳能电池板表面可能会被适应于干燥，温度波动和太阳辐射的微生物侵袭。尽管已经研究了这些群落的分类和功能组成，但微生物定殖过程仍不清楚。在目前的工作中，我们通过每周测量光伏效率，执行16S rRNA基因高通量测序以及研究抗菌化合物对微生物群落的组成的影响，在24个月内监测了该微生物的定殖过程。这是第一次对太阳能电池板的定殖过程进行了长期研究，我们的研究结果表明，物种丰富度和生物多样性表现出季节性波动，并且分别有专长（适应太阳能的面板）和通才分类单元增加或减少的趋势。在前，极端的细菌属奇异球菌属，Hymenobacter和Roseomonas和真菌Neocatenulostroma，Symmetrospora和掷孢酵母属倾向于主宰生物群落; 而乳杆菌属或Stemphyllium表现出下降趋势。通过使用化学试剂（Virkon）清洗面板，可以大大改变此轮廓，但这并未导致太阳能电池板效率的提高。我们的结果表明，太阳能电池板是一种极端的环境，会迫使人们选择特定的微生物群落。