Lakes under the ice: Antarctica’s secret garden

Fox, Douglas

doi:10.1038/512244a

Cited by 7 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…Exploration leading to penetration into Lake Vostok, the largest of the subglacial lakes, which sits below ~3.8 km of ice, has suffered a very challenging history 1,[114][115][116] . Unfortunately, this raises questions about the veracity of the interpretation of data for indigenous lake microorganisms, including data gathered using metagenomics and metatranscriptomics 117,118 .…”

Section: Box 2 | Subglacial Lakesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Microbial ecology of Antarctic aquatic systems

2015

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The Earth's biosphere is dominated by cold environments, and the cold biosphere is dominated by microorganisms. Microorganisms in cold Southern Ocean waters are recognized for having crucial roles in global biogeochemical cycles, including carbon sequestration, whereas microorganisms in other Antarctic aquatic biomes are not as well understood. In this Review, I consider what has been learned about Antarctic aquatic microbial ecology from 'omic' studies. I assess the factors that shape the biogeography of Antarctic microorganisms, reflect on some of the unusual biogeochemical cycles that they are associated with and discuss the important roles that viruses have in controlling ecosystem function.

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Section: Box 2 | Subglacial Lakesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Microbial ecology of Antarctic aquatic systems

2015

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“…Over the past decade there has been growing evidence of periods of flowing surface water on Mars [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14], and it is now known that there exists subsurface water in the form of a lake located 1.5 km below the surface near the south pole [15]. This environment may be comparable with subsurface lakes found on Earth, such as Lake Vostok and Lake Whillans, which are capable of harbouring surprising amounts of life [16][17][18]. The "active" Lake Whillans, underneath 800 m of ice, showed a metabolically active and diverse microbial ecosystem with 130,000 cells per millilitre of extracted lake water [17], whereas the "inactive" Lake Vostok, underneath 3800 m of ice, revealed two confirmed bacterial phylotypes, one of which was a hitherto-unknown type of bacterium referred to as W123-10.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%