Dynamic flows create potentially habitable conditions in Antarctic subglacial lakes
Trapped beneath the Antarctic ice sheet lie over 400 subglacial lakes, which are considered to be extreme, isolated, yet viable habitats for microbial life. The physical conditions within subglacial lakes are critical to evaluating how and where life may best exist. Here, we propose that Earth’s geo...
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American Association for the Advancement of Science
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ftnerc:oai:nora.nerc.ac.uk:527865 2023-05-15T13:41:45+02:00 Dynamic flows create potentially habitable conditions in Antarctic subglacial lakes Couston, Louis-Alexandre Siegert, Martin 2021-02-17 text http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/527865/ https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/527865/1/eabc3972.full.pdf https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/7/8/eabc3972 en eng American Association for the Advancement of Science https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/527865/1/eabc3972.full.pdf Couston, Louis-Alexandre orcid:0000-0002-2184-2472 Siegert, Martin. 2021 Dynamic flows create potentially habitable conditions in Antarctic subglacial lakes. Science Advances, 7 (8), eabc3972. 12, pp. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abc3972 <https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abc3972> cc_by_4 CC-BY Publication - Article PeerReviewed 2021 ftnerc https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abc3972 2023-02-04T19:50:43Z Trapped beneath the Antarctic ice sheet lie over 400 subglacial lakes, which are considered to be extreme, isolated, yet viable habitats for microbial life. The physical conditions within subglacial lakes are critical to evaluating how and where life may best exist. Here, we propose that Earth’s geothermal flux provides efficient stirring of Antarctic subglacial lake water. We demonstrate that most lakes are in a regime of vigorous turbulent vertical convection, enabling suspension of spherical particulates with diameters up to 36 micrometers. Thus, dynamic conditions support efficient mixing of nutrient- and oxygen-enriched meltwater derived from the overlying ice, which is essential for biome support within the water column. We caution that accreted ice analysis cannot always be used as a proxy for water sampling of lakes beneath a thin (<3.166 kilometers) ice cover, because a stable layer isolates the well-mixed bulk water from the ice-water interface where freezing may occur. Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctic Ice Sheet Natural Environment Research Council: NERC Open Research Archive Antarctic The Antarctic Science Advances 7 8 eabc3972 |
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Open Polar |
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Natural Environment Research Council: NERC Open Research Archive |
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ftnerc |
language |
English |
description |
Trapped beneath the Antarctic ice sheet lie over 400 subglacial lakes, which are considered to be extreme, isolated, yet viable habitats for microbial life. The physical conditions within subglacial lakes are critical to evaluating how and where life may best exist. Here, we propose that Earth’s geothermal flux provides efficient stirring of Antarctic subglacial lake water. We demonstrate that most lakes are in a regime of vigorous turbulent vertical convection, enabling suspension of spherical particulates with diameters up to 36 micrometers. Thus, dynamic conditions support efficient mixing of nutrient- and oxygen-enriched meltwater derived from the overlying ice, which is essential for biome support within the water column. We caution that accreted ice analysis cannot always be used as a proxy for water sampling of lakes beneath a thin (<3.166 kilometers) ice cover, because a stable layer isolates the well-mixed bulk water from the ice-water interface where freezing may occur. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Couston, Louis-Alexandre Siegert, Martin |
spellingShingle |
Couston, Louis-Alexandre Siegert, Martin Dynamic flows create potentially habitable conditions in Antarctic subglacial lakes |
author_facet |
Couston, Louis-Alexandre Siegert, Martin |
author_sort |
Couston, Louis-Alexandre |
title |
Dynamic flows create potentially habitable conditions in Antarctic subglacial lakes |
title_short |
Dynamic flows create potentially habitable conditions in Antarctic subglacial lakes |
title_full |
Dynamic flows create potentially habitable conditions in Antarctic subglacial lakes |
title_fullStr |
Dynamic flows create potentially habitable conditions in Antarctic subglacial lakes |
title_full_unstemmed |
Dynamic flows create potentially habitable conditions in Antarctic subglacial lakes |
title_sort |
dynamic flows create potentially habitable conditions in antarctic subglacial lakes |
publisher |
American Association for the Advancement of Science |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/527865/ https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/527865/1/eabc3972.full.pdf https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/7/8/eabc3972 |
geographic |
Antarctic The Antarctic |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic The Antarctic |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Ice Sheet |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Ice Sheet |
op_relation |
https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/527865/1/eabc3972.full.pdf Couston, Louis-Alexandre orcid:0000-0002-2184-2472 Siegert, Martin. 2021 Dynamic flows create potentially habitable conditions in Antarctic subglacial lakes. Science Advances, 7 (8), eabc3972. 12, pp. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abc3972 <https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abc3972> |
op_rights |
cc_by_4 |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abc3972 |
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Science Advances |
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7 |
container_issue |
8 |
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eabc3972 |
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1766156879558344704 |