The cold habitats of the Swiss Alps and the Arctic are undergoing change and are at risk of disappearing completely or partially in the future. Along with them, a poorly known diversity of microorganisms that have adapted to life in these supposedly hostile places. By cryopreserving microorganisms from these habitats, some of today's biodiversity can be preserved in biobanks. The collection contains cryopreserved bacteria and fungi isolated from permafrost and active layer of Muot da Barba Peider and Val Lavirun, from the glacier forefield and glacier toe of the Damma glacier, from active layer in northern Greenland and from plastic waste in Svalbard, as well as isolates from plastic incubations in Muot da Barba Peider, northern Greenland and arctic Russian soils.

Project overview: https://www.wsl.ch/en/projects/life-at-chilly-temperatures-a-collection-of-microorganisms-from-extreme-habitats/