Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-j824f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T17:49:19.776Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Nutrient and population dynamics in a subglacial reservoir: a simulation case study of the Blood Falls ecosystem with implications for astrobiology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 May 2013

Thomson Mason Fisher  and
Dirk Schulze-Makuch
Thomson Mason Fisher*
Affiliation:
School of the Environment, Washington State University, Pullman, WA, USA
Dirk Schulze-Makuch
Affiliation:
School of the Environment, Washington State University, Pullman, WA, USA
*
e-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Subglacial ecosystems have recently become of interest within the astrobiological community, as they represent a potentially habitable location in otherwise uninhabitable environments. We used data from Blood Falls, particularly the periodic discharge from the subglacial reservoir beneath Taylor Glacier, Antarctica, to construct an ecosystem model of the putative subglacial microbial community residing there using system dynamics modelling. The model results were, for the most part, within an order of magnitude of the geochemical field data. Productivity was quite low, at 6.4×10−5 g carbon l−1 yr−1. Based on the results, we draw the following conjectures for the search for life on Mars: A similar ecosystem would require a continual supply of oxidized iron for energy and generate significant amounts of reduced iron as a waste product, be relatively resilient to temporary disturbances, and, thermodynamically, would require at least 0.003 kJ mol l−1 of energy to survive at that level of productivity. These results may help to better identify the constraints and boundaries of ecosystems in extreme environments, on Earth and other planetary bodies.

Keywords

ecologyecosystem modellingsubglacialMarsPsychrophiles
Type
Research Article
Information
International Journal of Astrobiology , Volume 12 , Issue 4 , October 2013 , pp. 304 - 311
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Anderson, J. (1973). The eutrophication of lakes. In: Toward Global Equilibrium: Collected Papers, ed. Meadows, D.L. and Meadows, D.H.Pegasus Communications, Walthman, MA.Google Scholar
Anesio, A.M., Hodson, A.J., Fritz, A., Psenner, R. & Sattler, B. (2009). High microbial activity on glaciers: importance to the global carbon cycle. Global Change Biology 15, 955–960.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bottrell, S. & Tranter, M. (2002). Sulphide oxidation under partially anoxic conditions at the bed of Haut Glacier d'Arolla, Switzerland. Hydrological Processes 16, 2363–2368.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brannan, D. & Caldwell, D. (1983). Growth kinetics and yield coefficients of the extreme thermophile Thermothix thiopara in continuous culture. Applied and Environmental Microbiology 45(1), 169–173.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Carr, M. & Head, J. (2003). Oceans on Mars: an assessment of observational evidence and possible fate. Journal of Geophysical Research 108(E5), 5042–5070.Google Scholar
Dobrinski, K., Longo, D. & Scott, K. (2005). A hydrothermal vent chemolithoautotroph with a carbon concentrating mechanism. Journal of Bacteriology 187, 5761–5766.Google Scholar
Fassett, C. & Head, J. (2008). Valley network-fed open-basin lakes on Mars: distribution and implications for Noachian surface and subsurface hydrology. Icarus 198, 37–56.Google Scholar
Gadekar, S., Nemati, M. & Hill, G. (2006). Batch and continuous biooxidation of sulphide by Thiomicrospira sp. CVO: reaction kinetics and stoichiometry. Water Research 40, 2436–2446.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gaidos, E.J., Nealson, K.J. & Kirschvink, J.L. (1999). Life in ice-covered oceans. Science 284(5420), 1631–1633.Google Scholar
Gaidos, E.J., Lanoil, B., Thorsteinn, T., Graham, A., Skidmore, M., Han, S., Rust, T. & Popp, B. (2004). A viable microbial community in subglacial volcanic crater lake, Iceland. Astrobiology 4(3), 327–344.Google Scholar
Hodson, A., Anesio, A.M., Tranter, M., Fountain, A., Osborn, M., Priscu, J., Laybourn-Parry, J. & Sattler, B. (2008). Glacial Ecosystems. Ecol. Monogr. 78, 41–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Irwin, L. & Schulze-Makuch, D. (2003). Strategy for modeling putative multi-level ecosystems on Europa. Astrobiology 3(4), 813–821.Google Scholar
Knittle, K., Kuever, J., Meyerdieks, A., Meinke, R., Amann, R. & Brinkhoff, T. (2005). Thiomicrospira arctica sp. Nov. and Thiomicrospira psychrophila sp. Nov., psychrophilic, obligately chemolithautotrophic, sulfur-oxidzing bacteria isolated from marine Arctic sediments. International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology 55, 781–786.Google Scholar
Mikucki, J.A. (2005). Microbial Ecology of an Antarctic Subglacial Environment. Montana State University Press, Bozeman, MT.Google Scholar
Mikucki, J.A. & Priscu, J.C. (2007). Bacterial diversity associated with Blood Falls, a subglacial outflow from the Taylor Glacier, Antarctica. Applied and Environmental Microbiology 73(12), 4029.Google Scholar
Mikucki, J.A., Foreman, C.M., Sattler, B., Lyons, W.B. & Priscu, J.C. (2004). Geomicrobiology of Blood Falls: an iron-rich saline discharge at the terminus of the Taylor Glacier, Antarctica. Aquatic Geochemistry 10, 199–220.Google Scholar
Mikucki, J.A., Pearson, A., Johnston, D.T., Turchyn, A.V., Farquhar, J., Schrag, D.P., Anbar, A.D., Priscu, J.C. & Lee, P.A. (2009). A contemporary microbially maintained subglacial ferrous ‘ocean’. Science 324, 397–398.Google Scholar
Monod, J. (1949). The growth of bacterial cultures. Annual Review of Microbiology 3, 371–394.Google Scholar
Polis, G. & Hurd, S. (1996). Linking marine and terrestrial food webs: allochthonous input from the ocean supports high secondary productivity on small islands and coastal land communities. American Naturalist 147(3), 396–423.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ruby, E. & Jannasch, H. (1982). Physiological characteristics of Thiomicrospira sp. strain L-12 isolated from deep-sea hydrothermal vents. J. Bacteriol. 149(1), 161–165.Google Scholar
Schink, B. (2006). Microbially driven redox reactions in anoxic environments: pathways, energetic, and biochemical consequences. Engineering in Life Science 6, 228–233.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schulze-Makuch, D., Irwin, L. & Fairen, A.G. (2013). Drastic environmental changes and its effects on a planetary biosphere. Icarus in press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Skidmore, M., Foght, J. & Sharp, M. (2000). Microbial life beneath a high arctic glacier. Applied and Environmental Microbiology 66(8), 3412–3220.Google Scholar
Thingstad, T. (1987). Utilization of N, P and organic C by heterotrophic bacteria. I. Outline of a chemostat theory with a consistent concept of ‘maintenance’ metabolism. Marine Ecology Progress Series 35, 99–109.Google Scholar
Tranter, M., Skidmore, M. & Wadham, J. (2005). Hydrological controls on microbial communities subglacial environments. Hydrol. Process 19, 995–998.Google Scholar
Ventana Systems, Inc. (2012). Vensim Version 6. http://www.vensim.com/documentation/index.htmlGoogle Scholar