An oligarchic microbial assemblage in the anoxic bottom waters of a volcanic subglacial lake

Gaidos, Eric; Marteinsson, V.; Þorsteinsson, Þorsteinn; Jøhannesson, Tómas; Rúnarsson, Árni Rafn; Stefánsson, Andri; Glazer, Brian T.; Lanoil, Brian; Skidmore, M. L.; Han, Shoufa; Miller, Mary E.; Rusch, Antje; Foo, W.

doi:10.1038/ismej.2008.124

Cited by 82 publications

(70 citation statements)

References 70 publications

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“…These values are similar to or higher than other subglacial ecosystems and groundwater studies elsewhere in the world. For example, cell abundances of 2.1 × 10 4 cells ml −1 were detected in Grímsvötn lake water in Iceland, and 3.8 × 10 7 cells g −1 of lake sediment [67], whereas abundances that are comparable with SLW were observed in a different subglacial volcanic lake in Iceland, West Skaftá (4.7-5.7 × 10 5 cells ml −1 ; [68]). Blood Falls, a subglacial outflow in the McMurdo Dry Valleys of Antarctica, contained an average 6 × 10 4 cells ml −1 during an outflow event in 2004 [8].…”

Section: Biogeochemical Results From Subglacial Lake Whillansmentioning

confidence: 99%

Subglacial Lake Whillans microbial biogeochemistry: a synthesis of current knowledge

Mikucki

Lee

Ghosh

et al. 2016

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A.

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Liquid water occurs below glaciers and ice sheets globally, enabling the existence of an array of aquatic microbial ecosystems. In Antarctica, large subglacial lakes are present beneath hundreds to thousands of metres of ice, and scientific interest in exploring these environments has escalated over the past decade. After years of planning, the first team of scientists and engineers cleanly accessed and retrieved pristine samples from a West Antarctic subglacial lake ecosystem in January 2013. This paper reviews the findings to date on Subglacial Lake Whillans and presents new supporting data on the carbon and energy metabolism of resident microbes. The analysis of water and sediments from the lake revealed a diverse microbial community composed of bacteria and archaea that are close relatives of species known to use reduced N, S or Fe and CH4 as energy sources. The water chemistry of Subglacial Lake Whillans was dominated by weathering products from silicate minerals with a minor influence from seawater. Contributions to water chemistry from microbial sulfide oxidation and carbonation reactions were supported by genomic data. Collectively, these results provide unequivocal evidence that subglacial environments in this region of West Antarctica host active microbial ecosystems that participate in subglacial biogeochemical cyclingauthorsversionPeer reviewe

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Section: Biogeochemical Results From Subglacial Lake Whillansmentioning

confidence: 99%

Subglacial Lake Whillans microbial biogeochemistry: a synthesis of current knowledge

Mikucki

Lee

Ghosh

et al. 2016

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A.

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“…The latter is of significant astrobiological interest, as a stable, hydrothermallysourced body of liquid water can provide a unique environment for microorganisms. Indeed this is observed to be the case for two such subglacial caldera lakes in Iceland (Gaidos et al 2008;Gaidos et al 2004). The geothermal sediments at Hveradalur and Hveratagl, Kverkfjöll are largely indicative of acidic-neutral hydrothermal alteration of basaltic material.…”

Section: Fingerprint For Environmental Conditionsmentioning

confidence: 92%

“…Likewise, the basaltic rock units (hyaloclastite, hyalotuffs, pillow lavas) and jökulhlaup sedimentary deposits provide a lithological fingerprint that is highly characteristic of a basaltic volcano -ice interaction environment. Previous work investigating the microbiology of subglacial volcanic environments beneath Vatnajökull has shown these volcanic systems to support specialised microbial communities (Gaidos et al 2004(Gaidos et al , 2008. The wide diversity of hydrothermal environments at Kverkfjöll provide a valuable, and as yet not fully-explored, range of volcano -ice interaction environments that may be used to test instruments and operational strategies for searching for similar past environments on Mars.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This liquid water ranges in volume from a continual subsurface cycling of hydrothermal fluids throughout the volcanic system, to large volumes of subglacial meltwater, that can either be sustained as a subglacial lake (Gaidos et al 2008; or released catastrophically as a glacial outburst flood or "jökulhlaup" (Björnsson 2002). A recently documented example on Mars was described by , ) have detailing detailed the impacts of an outburst flooding at from the Martian polar cap which occurred as little as 20,000 years ago, and which interpreted to be the result of volcano -ice interaction .…”

Section: Volcano -Ice Interactionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Glaciovolcanic hydrothermal environments in Iceland and implications for their detection on Mars

Cousins

Crawford

Carrivick

et al. 2013

Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research

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Hydrothermal environments driven by volcanism are prime astrobiological targets on Mars, due to their ability to support and preserve microbial ecosystems. Volcano -ice interactions on On Earth, volcano -ice interactions produce many hydrothermal habitats available to microbial colonisation, and thus provide an analogue to past environments on Mars, where many landforms have been attributed to volcano -cryospheric interaction. However, Mars exploration urgently requires a framework for identifying such environments on a range of scales and with a range of geological criteria. In this paper rRemote sensing data were combined with sub-mm environmental mapping and sample analysis that included (X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, thin section petrography, scanning electron microscopy, electron dispersive spectrometer analysis, and dissolved ion water chemistry,) to characterise samples from two areas of basaltic volcano -ice interaction: namely Askja and Kverkfjöll volcanoes in Iceland. Askja was erupted subglacially during the Pleistocene, and is now exposed within a volcanic desert. Kverkfjöll is a subglacial volcano beneath on the northern margin of Vatnajökull ice cap, and hosts active hydrothermal systems. NE-trending fissure swarm ridges extend between these two volcanic systems. Multiple Holocene glacial outburst (jökulhlaup) sedimentary deposits lie to the north of Kverkfjöll. Hydrothermal environments at Kverkfjöll were found to be predominantly acidic, with dissolved sulphate dominating the water chemistry. These hydrothermal environments vary across a small (<100 m) spatial scale, and include hot springs, anoxic pools, meltwater lakes, and sulphur-and iron-depositing fumaroles. Biomats, two in association with individual goethite and pyrite mineral terraces, were common at Kverkfjöll. In-situ and laboratory VNIR (440 -1000 nm) reflectance spectra representative of Mars rover multispectral imaging show spectral profiles to be influenced by Fe 2+/3+ -bearing minerals. Overall, sediments and lavas display two types of hydrothermal alteration: a low-temperature (<120°C) assemblage dominated by palagonite, sulfates, and iron oxides; and a high-temperature (>120°C) assemblage signified by heulandite and quartz. This Overall, this work provides a framework for identifying such environments during future exploration of Mars, given their high astrobiological potential, and Claire Cousins -BBK 14/08/12 3 provides a descriptive reference for the two prominent active hydrothermal environments at Kverkfjöllwhich can be used as analogues for those on Mars.

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“…), cold (o5 1C) and low in organic matter (o o1 mg l À 1 C) owing to melting of the overlying, nutrient-poor ice (Á gú stsdó ttir and Brantley, 1994;Gaidos et al, 2004;Jó hannesson et al, 2007;Gaidos et al, 2009). The Grímsvötn lake was sampled in June 2002, 3 months after a jö kulhlaup, and consisted of oxygenated glacial melt, but the west Skaftárketill lake, explored in June 2006, was anoxic and sulfidic, with hydrothermal input (Jó hannesson et al, 2007).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Microbial communities in the subglacial waters of the Vatnajökull ice cap, Iceland

et al. 2012

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Subglacial lakes beneath the Vatnajö kull ice cap in Iceland host endemic communities of microorganisms adapted to cold, dark and nutrient-poor waters, but the mechanisms by which these microbes disseminate under the ice and colonize these lakes are unknown. We present new data on this subglacial microbiome generated from samples of two subglacial lakes, a subglacial flood and a lake that was formerly subglacial but now partly exposed to the atmosphere. These data include parallel 16S rRNA gene amplicon libraries constructed using novel primers that span the v3-v5 and v4-v6 hypervariable regions. Archaea were not detected in either subglacial lake, and the communities are dominated by only five bacterial taxa. Our paired libraries are highly concordant for the most abundant taxa, but estimates of diversity (abundance-based coverage estimator) in the v4-v6 libraries are 3-8 times higher than in corresponding v3-v5 libraries. The dominant taxa are closely related to cultivated anaerobes and microaerobes, and may occupy unique metabolic niches in a chemoautolithotrophic ecosystem. The populations of the major taxa in the subglacial lakes are indistinguishable (499% sequence identity), despite separation by 6 km and an ice divide; one taxon is ubiquitous in our Vatnajö kull samples. We propose that the glacial bed is connected through an aquifer in the underlying permeable basalt, and these subglacial lakes are colonized from a deeper, subterranean microbiome.

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An oligarchic microbial assemblage in the anoxic bottom waters of a volcanic subglacial lake

Cited by 82 publications

References 70 publications

Subglacial Lake Whillans microbial biogeochemistry: a synthesis of current knowledge

Subglacial Lake Whillans microbial biogeochemistry: a synthesis of current knowledge

Glaciovolcanic hydrothermal environments in Iceland and implications for their detection on Mars

Microbial communities in the subglacial waters of the Vatnajökull ice cap, Iceland

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