Subglacial erosion has the potential to sustain microbial processes in Subglacial Lake Whillans, Antarctica
Abstract Subglacial Lake Whillans lies below around 800 m of Antarctic ice and is isolated from fresh sources of photosynthetic organic matter to sustain life. The diverse microbial ecosystems within the lake and underlying sediments are therefore dependent on a combination of relict, overridden, ma...
Published in: | Communications Earth & Environment |
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2021
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crspringernat:10.1038/s43247-021-00202-x 2023-05-15T14:07:52+02:00 Subglacial erosion has the potential to sustain microbial processes in Subglacial Lake Whillans, Antarctica Gill-Olivas, Beatriz Telling, Jon Tranter, Martyn Skidmore, Mark Christner, Brent O’Doherty, Simon Priscu, John RCUK | Natural Environment Research Council 2021 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s43247-021-00202-x http://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-021-00202-x.pdf http://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-021-00202-x en eng Springer Science and Business Media LLC https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 CC-BY Communications Earth & Environment volume 2, issue 1 ISSN 2662-4435 General Earth and Planetary Sciences General Environmental Science journal-article 2021 crspringernat https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-021-00202-x 2022-01-04T15:21:47Z Abstract Subglacial Lake Whillans lies below around 800 m of Antarctic ice and is isolated from fresh sources of photosynthetic organic matter to sustain life. The diverse microbial ecosystems within the lake and underlying sediments are therefore dependent on a combination of relict, overridden, marine-derived organic matter and mineral-derived energy. Here, we conduct experiments to replicate subglacial erosion involving both gentle and high-energy crushing of Subglacial Lake Whillans sediments and the subsequent addition of anoxic water. We find that substantial quantities of reduced species, including hydrogen, methane, acetate and ammonium and oxidised species such as hydrogen peroxide, sulfate and carbon dioxide are released. We propose that the concomitant presence of both hydrogen and hydrogen peroxide, alongside high concentrations of mineral surface radicals, suggests that the splitting of water on freshly abraded mineral surfaces increases the concentrations of redox pairs from rock-water reactions and could provide a mechanism to augment the energy available to microbial ecosystems. Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica Springer Nature (via Crossref) Antarctic Whillans ENVELOPE(-64.250,-64.250,-84.450,-84.450) Communications Earth & Environment 2 1 |
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Open Polar |
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Springer Nature (via Crossref) |
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English |
topic |
General Earth and Planetary Sciences General Environmental Science |
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General Earth and Planetary Sciences General Environmental Science Gill-Olivas, Beatriz Telling, Jon Tranter, Martyn Skidmore, Mark Christner, Brent O’Doherty, Simon Priscu, John Subglacial erosion has the potential to sustain microbial processes in Subglacial Lake Whillans, Antarctica |
topic_facet |
General Earth and Planetary Sciences General Environmental Science |
description |
Abstract Subglacial Lake Whillans lies below around 800 m of Antarctic ice and is isolated from fresh sources of photosynthetic organic matter to sustain life. The diverse microbial ecosystems within the lake and underlying sediments are therefore dependent on a combination of relict, overridden, marine-derived organic matter and mineral-derived energy. Here, we conduct experiments to replicate subglacial erosion involving both gentle and high-energy crushing of Subglacial Lake Whillans sediments and the subsequent addition of anoxic water. We find that substantial quantities of reduced species, including hydrogen, methane, acetate and ammonium and oxidised species such as hydrogen peroxide, sulfate and carbon dioxide are released. We propose that the concomitant presence of both hydrogen and hydrogen peroxide, alongside high concentrations of mineral surface radicals, suggests that the splitting of water on freshly abraded mineral surfaces increases the concentrations of redox pairs from rock-water reactions and could provide a mechanism to augment the energy available to microbial ecosystems. |
author2 |
RCUK | Natural Environment Research Council |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Gill-Olivas, Beatriz Telling, Jon Tranter, Martyn Skidmore, Mark Christner, Brent O’Doherty, Simon Priscu, John |
author_facet |
Gill-Olivas, Beatriz Telling, Jon Tranter, Martyn Skidmore, Mark Christner, Brent O’Doherty, Simon Priscu, John |
author_sort |
Gill-Olivas, Beatriz |
title |
Subglacial erosion has the potential to sustain microbial processes in Subglacial Lake Whillans, Antarctica |
title_short |
Subglacial erosion has the potential to sustain microbial processes in Subglacial Lake Whillans, Antarctica |
title_full |
Subglacial erosion has the potential to sustain microbial processes in Subglacial Lake Whillans, Antarctica |
title_fullStr |
Subglacial erosion has the potential to sustain microbial processes in Subglacial Lake Whillans, Antarctica |
title_full_unstemmed |
Subglacial erosion has the potential to sustain microbial processes in Subglacial Lake Whillans, Antarctica |
title_sort |
subglacial erosion has the potential to sustain microbial processes in subglacial lake whillans, antarctica |
publisher |
Springer Science and Business Media LLC |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s43247-021-00202-x http://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-021-00202-x.pdf http://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-021-00202-x |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-64.250,-64.250,-84.450,-84.450) |
geographic |
Antarctic Whillans |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic Whillans |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica |
op_source |
Communications Earth & Environment volume 2, issue 1 ISSN 2662-4435 |
op_rights |
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-021-00202-x |
container_title |
Communications Earth & Environment |
container_volume |
2 |
container_issue |
1 |
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1766279907668656128 |