As part of the reconstruction of the Brazilian Antarctic Station on King George Island, three areas of moss carpet were transplanted to minimize the impact of the new facilities on the local biodiversity. A total of 650 m² of moss carpet was transplanted to neighboring but previously uncolonized locations and has subsequently survived for the last 3 years. Antarctic moss carpets typically comprise low moss species diversity and are often monospecific. We investigated the cryptic biodiversity that was transplanted along with the carpets using a metabarcoding approach through high throughput sequencing. We targeted 16S rRNA for Bacteria and Archaea, ITS for Fungi and Viridiplantae and Cox1 for Metazoa. We detected DNA representing 263 taxa from five Kingdoms (Chromista, Fungi, Metazoa, Protista and Viridiplantae), two Domains (Archaea and Bacteria) and 33 Phyla associated with the carpet. This diversity included one Archaea, 189 Bacteria, 24 Chromista, 19 Fungi, eight Metazoa, seven Protista and 16 Viridiplantae. Bacteria was the most abundant, rich and diverse group, with Chromista second in diversity and richness. Metazoa was less diverse but second highest in dominance. This is the first study to attempt transplanting a significant area of moss carpet to minimize anthropogenic environmental damage in Antarctica and to use metabarcoding as a proxy to assess diversity associated with Antarctic moss carpets, further highlighting the importance of such habitats for other organisms and their importance for conservation.

作为在乔治王岛上重建巴西南极站的一部分，移植了三个区域的苔藓地毯，以尽量减少新设施对当地生物多样性的影响。共 650 m ²苔藓地毯被移植到邻近但以前未被殖民的地方，随后在过去的 3 年中幸存下来。南极苔藓地毯通常包含低苔藓物种多样性，并且通常是单一的。我们使用元条形码方法通过高通量测序研究了与地毯一起移植的神秘生物多样性。我们针对细菌和古细菌的 16S rRNA，针对真菌和草本植物的 ITS 和针对后生动物的 Cox1。我们检测到代表来自五个界（色界、真菌、后生动物、原生生物和绿藻）的 263 个分类群的 DNA，两个领域（古生菌和细菌）和与地毯相关的 33 个门。这种多样性包括一种古生菌、189 种细菌、24 种色素、19 种真菌、8 种后生动物、7 种原生生物和 16 种草本植物。细菌是最丰富、最丰富和多样化的群体，Chromista 在多样性和丰富性方面排名第二。后生动物的多样性较少，但在优势方面排名第二。这是第一项尝试移植大面积苔藓地毯以尽量减少南极洲人为环境破坏并使用元条形码作为代理来评估与南极苔藓地毯相关的多样性的研究，进一步强调了此类栖息地对其他生物的重要性及其重要性为保护。