DETECTION OF HUMAN COMMENSALS IN THE AREA AROUND AN ANTARCTIC RESEARCH STATION

Human contamination of antarctic environments is a sensitive issue and has been the focus of many research articles over the past 35 years. The majority of these studies have targeted waste materials and variou s hydrocarbons, with assessment of microbial contaminants being largel y restricted to sewage outfalls. The present study aimed to detect bac teria of human origin in the area surrounding Halley research station. It was apparent from both molecular and culture methods that bacteria of human origin are extremely difficult to detect outside the immedia te surrounding of the buildings, though recommendations are made for i ncreasing the probability of determining the presence of organisms in the environment. The results also indicate that molecular methods are more sensitive than cultural techniques, in that the only evidence for organisms in the environment surrounding the buildings came from posi tive PCR reactions. PCR would appear to be a useful method for studyin g the microbial ecology of Antarctic environments.