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Geology; February 1999; v. 27; no. 2; p. 107-110; DOI: 10.1130/0091-7613(1999)027<0107:WBPAGB>2.3.CO;2
© 1999 Geological Society of America
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Widespread bacterial populations at glacier beds and their relationship to rock weathering and carbon cycling

Martin Sharp1, John Parkes2, Barry Cragg2, Ian J. Fairchild3, Helen Lamb4 and Martyn Tranter5

1 Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2E3, Canada
2 Department of Geology, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1RJ, UK
3 Department of Earth Sciences, Keele University, Staffs ST5 5BG, UK
4 Department of Geography and Topographic Science, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QQ, UK
5 Bristol Glaciology Centre, School of Geographical Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1SS, UK

Bacterial populations found in subglacial meltwaters and basal ice are comparable to those in the active layer of permafrost and orders of magnitude larger than those found in ice cores from large ice sheets. Populations increase with sediment concentration, and 5%–24% of the bacteria are dividing or have just divided, suggesting that the populations are active. These findings (1) support inferences from recent studies of basal ice and meltwater chemistry that microbially mediated redox reactions may be important at glacier beds, (2) challenge the view that chemical weathering in glacial environments arises from purely inorganic reactions, and (3) raise the possibilities that redox reactions are a major source of protons consumed in subglacial weathering and that these reactions may be the dominant proton source beneath ice sheets where meltwaters are isolated from an atmospheric source of CO2. Microbial mediation may increase the rate of sulfide oxidation under subglacial conditions, a suggestion supported by the results of simple weathering experiments. If subglacial bacterial populations can oxidize and ferment organic carbon, it is important to reconsider the fate of soil organic carbon accumulated under interglacial conditions in areas subsequently overridden by Pleistocene ice sheets.




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