Spatially consistent microbial biomass and future cellular carbon release from melting Northern Hemisphere glacier surfaces
Melting glacier ice surfaces host active microbial communities that enhance glacial melt, contribute to biogeochemical cycling, and nourish downstream ecosystems; but these communities remain poorly characterised. Over the coming decades, the forecast ‘peak melt’ of Earth’s glaciers necessitates an...
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ftethz:oai:www.research-collection.ethz.ch:20.500.11850/582556 2023-05-15T16:21:20+02:00 Spatially consistent microbial biomass and future cellular carbon release from melting Northern Hemisphere glacier surfaces Stevens, Ian T. Irvine-Fynn, Tristram D.L. Edwards, Arwyn Mitchell, Andrew C. Cook, Joseph M. Porter, Philip R. Holt, Tom O. Huss, Matthias Fettweis, Xavier Moorman, Brian J. Sattler, Birgit Hodson, Andy J. 2022-11-10 application/application/pdf https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11850/582556 https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000582556 en eng Nature info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.1038/s43247-022-00609-0 info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/wos/000881681300002 http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11850/582556 doi:10.3929/ethz-b-000582556 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International CC-BY Communications Earth & Environment, 3 (1) info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion 2022 ftethz https://doi.org/20.500.11850/582556 https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000582556 https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-022-00609-0 2023-02-13T01:15:24Z Melting glacier ice surfaces host active microbial communities that enhance glacial melt, contribute to biogeochemical cycling, and nourish downstream ecosystems; but these communities remain poorly characterised. Over the coming decades, the forecast ‘peak melt’ of Earth’s glaciers necessitates an improvement in understanding the state and fate of supraglacial ecosystems to better predict the effects of climate change upon glacial surfaces and catchment biogeochemistry. Here we show a regionally consistent mean microbial abundance of 104 cells mL−1 in surface meltwaters from eight glaciers across Europe and North America, and two sites in western Greenland. Microbial abundance is correlated with suspended sediment concentration, but not with ice surface hydraulic properties. We forecast that release of these microbes from surfaces under a medium carbon emission scenario (RCP 4.5) will deliver 2.9 × 1022 cells yr−1, equivalent to 0.65 million tonnes yr−1 of cellular carbon, to downstream ecosystems over the next ~80 years. ISSN:2662-4435 Article in Journal/Newspaper glacier Greenland ETH Zürich Research Collection Greenland |
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Open Polar |
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ETH Zürich Research Collection |
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ftethz |
language |
English |
description |
Melting glacier ice surfaces host active microbial communities that enhance glacial melt, contribute to biogeochemical cycling, and nourish downstream ecosystems; but these communities remain poorly characterised. Over the coming decades, the forecast ‘peak melt’ of Earth’s glaciers necessitates an improvement in understanding the state and fate of supraglacial ecosystems to better predict the effects of climate change upon glacial surfaces and catchment biogeochemistry. Here we show a regionally consistent mean microbial abundance of 104 cells mL−1 in surface meltwaters from eight glaciers across Europe and North America, and two sites in western Greenland. Microbial abundance is correlated with suspended sediment concentration, but not with ice surface hydraulic properties. We forecast that release of these microbes from surfaces under a medium carbon emission scenario (RCP 4.5) will deliver 2.9 × 1022 cells yr−1, equivalent to 0.65 million tonnes yr−1 of cellular carbon, to downstream ecosystems over the next ~80 years. ISSN:2662-4435 |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Stevens, Ian T. Irvine-Fynn, Tristram D.L. Edwards, Arwyn Mitchell, Andrew C. Cook, Joseph M. Porter, Philip R. Holt, Tom O. Huss, Matthias Fettweis, Xavier Moorman, Brian J. Sattler, Birgit Hodson, Andy J. |
spellingShingle |
Stevens, Ian T. Irvine-Fynn, Tristram D.L. Edwards, Arwyn Mitchell, Andrew C. Cook, Joseph M. Porter, Philip R. Holt, Tom O. Huss, Matthias Fettweis, Xavier Moorman, Brian J. Sattler, Birgit Hodson, Andy J. Spatially consistent microbial biomass and future cellular carbon release from melting Northern Hemisphere glacier surfaces |
author_facet |
Stevens, Ian T. Irvine-Fynn, Tristram D.L. Edwards, Arwyn Mitchell, Andrew C. Cook, Joseph M. Porter, Philip R. Holt, Tom O. Huss, Matthias Fettweis, Xavier Moorman, Brian J. Sattler, Birgit Hodson, Andy J. |
author_sort |
Stevens, Ian T. |
title |
Spatially consistent microbial biomass and future cellular carbon release from melting Northern Hemisphere glacier surfaces |
title_short |
Spatially consistent microbial biomass and future cellular carbon release from melting Northern Hemisphere glacier surfaces |
title_full |
Spatially consistent microbial biomass and future cellular carbon release from melting Northern Hemisphere glacier surfaces |
title_fullStr |
Spatially consistent microbial biomass and future cellular carbon release from melting Northern Hemisphere glacier surfaces |
title_full_unstemmed |
Spatially consistent microbial biomass and future cellular carbon release from melting Northern Hemisphere glacier surfaces |
title_sort |
spatially consistent microbial biomass and future cellular carbon release from melting northern hemisphere glacier surfaces |
publisher |
Nature |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11850/582556 https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000582556 |
geographic |
Greenland |
geographic_facet |
Greenland |
genre |
glacier Greenland |
genre_facet |
glacier Greenland |
op_source |
Communications Earth & Environment, 3 (1) |
op_relation |
info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.1038/s43247-022-00609-0 info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/wos/000881681300002 http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11850/582556 doi:10.3929/ethz-b-000582556 |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/20.500.11850/582556 https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000582556 https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-022-00609-0 |
_version_ |
1766009346517368832 |