Scientists at the British Antarctic Survey have announced that they’ve confirmed the presence of life in samples of mud from the bottom of a subglacial lake in Antarctica. The team’s findings have been published in the...
The research team conducted their work at Lake Hodgson, on the Antarctic Peninsula. During the last Ice Age over 100,000 years ago, this lake was covered with ice over 1300 feet thick. However, because of rising global temperatures, the ice over Lake Hodgson, like other Antarctic ice sheets, has gotten much thinner. It’s now covered with only about 10-13 feet of ice, making drilling a much simpler process.
The team drilled into the ice over the lake, then kept drilling until the reached the bottom of the lake – about 305 feet deep. They then retrieved the sample for study. During the course of their work, they used a “clean core” drill style with sterilized equipment to avoid possible contamination. That possibility of contamination hovers over other claims that life has been found in Antarctic Lake Vostok.
When they examined the sediments, the research team found that there were many different species of microbes surviving – and thriving – in the extreme climate those sediments. In the paper, the researchers noted that “the subglacial units in the Lake Hodgson sediment cores have demonstrated that a high diversity of life at relatively low biomass is present in Antarctic subglacial lake sediments.”
When they say “high diversity” – they aren’t kidding. The scientists uncovered several different types of known bacterial groups, but were forced to conclude in their paper that 23% or the organisms they found could only be classed as “unidentified bacterium.”
That says a lot about the unique finds that await biologists who want to study how life can survive in these environments. And through that knowledge, we might be able to learn ways that could, for example, improve medicine. It could also give biologists some idea how life could evolve and thrive on other planets with similarly extreme environments, as well.
“The fact these organisms have survived in such a unique environment could mean they have developed in unique ways which could lead to exciting discoveries for us,” said lead researcher David Pearce in a statement. “This is the early stage and we now need to do more work to further investigate these life forms.”
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