Also under the ice, alive

2009/04/22 Lakar Iraizoz, Oihane - Elhuyar Zientzia

• Mikrobiologia
• Paleontologia
• Arkeologia

Under a glacier they have discovered in Antarctica a living ecosystem that takes about two million years. The ecosystem is located in a lagoon covered by the Taylor glacier, under a 400 metre ice sheet. A team of researchers from Hanover Dartmouth School has found that at least 17 microorganisms live in these conditions.

They have not had to make excavations to reach the lake. The lagoon has an effluent, called Blood Falls, in which eventually the water comes out to the edges. The team of researchers has taken samples of extracted water for six years, and after analyzing them, has been able to verify that there are also living beings there.

The most surprising discovery is not the presence of living beings, in short, in other conditions that we consider extreme on Earth. The most surprising thing for scientists has been to know how living beings adapt to obtain the energy needed to live. It is believed that sulfate, very abundant in this water, is used as a catalyst in the complex chain of reaction of obtaining energy, being iron, also very abundant, the last electron receptor. Many biogeochemicals considered this very difficult because the reaction of iron and sulfate causes pyrite.

Image courtesy of: Benjamin Urmston