Microbes Found Deep Under The Ice Of Antarctic Lake, Isolated For At Least The Last 3,000 Years

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Researchers have for the first time discovered microbial communities living in a salty, dark, and subfreezing environment. Underneath twenty meters of ice, in Lake Vida, one of Antarctica’s most isolated lakes, microbes isolated for the last couple of thousands of years have been surviving.

Lake Vida is practically an alien world: no oxygen, mostly frozen, and having “the highest nitrous oxide levels of any natural water body on Earth.” Composed of a briny liquid, around 6 times saltier than seawater percolates, and almost completely surrounded by ice, the average temperature there is minus 13.5 degrees centigrade (or 8 degrees Fahrenheit).

“This study provides a window into one of the most unique ecosystems on Earth,” said Murray, the report’s lead author, and molecular microbial ecologist and polar researcher for the past 17 years, who has participated in 14 expeditions to the Southern Ocean and Antarctic continent. “Our knowledge of geochemical and microbial processes in lightless icy environments, especially at subzero temperatures, has been mostly unknown up until now. This work expands our understanding of the types of life that can survive in these isolated, cryoecosystems and how different strategies may be used to exist in such challenging environments.”

“Despite the very cold, dark and isolated nature of the habitat, the report finds that the brine harbors a surprisingly diverse and abundant assemblage of bacteria that survive without a present-day source of energy from the sun. Previous studies of Lake Vida dating back to 1996 indicate that the brine and its’ inhabitants have been isolated from outside influences for more than 3,000 years. Murray and her co-authors and collaborators, including the project’s principal investigator Dr. Peter Doran of the University of Illinois at Chicago, developed stringent protocols and specialized equipment for their 2005 and 2010 field campaigns to sample the lake brine while avoiding contaminating the pristine ecosystem.”

To ensure the sterility of their testing methods, the researchers “worked under secure, sterile tents on the lake’s surface to keep the site and equipment clean as they drilled ice cores, collected samples of the salty brine residing in the lake ice and then assessed the chemical qualities of the water and its potential for harboring and sustaining life, in addition to describing the diversity of the organisms detected.”

“Geochemical analyses suggest that chemical reactions between the brine and the underlying iron-rich sediments generate nitrous oxide and molecular hydrogen. The latter, in part, may provide the energy needed to support the brine’s diverse microbial life.”

“It’s plausible that a life-supporting energy source exists solely from the chemical reaction between anoxic salt water and the rock,” explained Fritsen, a systems microbial ecologist and Research Professor in DRI’s Division of Earth and Ecosystem Sciences.

“If that’s the case,” echoed Murray. “This gives us an entirely new framework for thinking of how life can be supported in cryoecosystems on earth and in other icy worlds of the universe.”
Murray added further research is currently under way to analyze the abiotic, chemical interactions between the Lake Vida brine and the sediment, in addition to investigating the microbial community by using different genome sequencing approaches. The results could help explain the potential for life in other salty, cryogenic environments beyond Earth.

“The Lake Vida brine also represents a cryoecosystem that is a suitable and accessible analog for the soils, sediments, wetlands, and lakes underlying the Antarctic ice sheet that other polar researchers are just now beginning to explore.”

The research was just published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Source: The Desert Research Institute and Michigan State University

Image Credits: The Desert Research Institute, Alison Murray, Christian H. Fritzen

Microbes Found Deep Under The Ice Of Antarctic Lake, Isolated For At Least The Last 3,000 Years was originally posted on: PlanetSave

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