FIG. 2.

Hierarchical clustering showing the overall phylogenetic distances between the bacterial communities on the Kuytun glacial surface (this study) and from John Evans Glacier, Canada (22), Alaska Bench Glacier (22), and East Rongbuk Glacier north of the Himalayas (16). (a) Comparison of communities among the Kuytun 51 Glacier, John Evans Glacier, Bench Glacier, and Rongbuk Glacier; (b) community comparison between the Kuytun 51 Glacier and Rongbuk Glacier (sequence KuyT-ice-3 with a later portion of the 16S rRNA gene was removed from the phylogenetic tree list). Distances were estimated with the weighted UniFrac algorithm (17). A sequence jackknifing technique was applied to each cluster to determine the sensitivity of the relationships to sample size.