Researchers have identified thriving microbial communities hundreds of meters beneath the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica

Researchers have identified thriving microbial communities hundreds of meters beneath the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica

¨     Researchers have identified thriving microbial communities hundreds of meters beneath the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica.

¨     The findings were published in 2022 in Nature Communications.

¨     In 2024, a detailed description of a functional microbial community in seawater beneath the ice shelf was published.

¨     The Ross Ice Shelf is the largest ice shelf in Antarctica.

¨     It is a floating extension of the Antarctic ice sheet.

¨     The cavity beneath the shelf contains seawater that remains dark, extremely cold and isolated from direct sunlight for long periods.

¨     The microbial community includes aerobic lithoautotrophic archaea and bacteria.

¨     Heterotrophic microorganisms that break down organic carbon are also present in the community.

¨     These microbes obtain energy through chemosynthesis using ammonium, nitrite and sulfur compounds.

¨     This process does not depend on sunlight.

¨     Scientists used metagenomics and metatranscriptomics to study microbial DNA and active gene expression beneath the ice.

¨ These techniques helped identify community structure and metabolic activity in environments where direct cultivation is difficult.