Quantification of basal ice microbial cell delivery to the glacier margin

We present the first assessment of microbial cell discharge from sediment-laden glacier basal ice. At Svínafellsjökull, a temperate valley glacier in Iceland, approximately 10 17 cells a −1 are transferred through basal ice to the proglacial environment, and between 10 1 and 10 6 cells g −1 basal ic...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Toubes-Rodrigo, Mario, Cook, Simon J., Elliott, David, Sen, Robin
Format: Text
Language:English
Published: 2018
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-2016-471
https://www.biogeosciences-discuss.net/bg-2016-471/
Description
Summary:We present the first assessment of microbial cell discharge from sediment-laden glacier basal ice. At Svínafellsjökull, a temperate valley glacier in Iceland, approximately 10 17 cells a −1 are transferred through basal ice to the proglacial environment, and between 10 1 and 10 6 cells g −1 basal ice were cultured from our samples under laboratory conditions. We suggest that the delivery of viable cells and dead microbial matter to proglacial ecosystems could be playing a crucial role in soil formation and primary succession during deglaciation, but further quantification of cell transfer from a range of glacier contexts is required.