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Geology; March 2003; v. 31; no. 3; p. 231-234; DOI: 10.1130/0091-7613(2003)031<0231:EOMCMW>2.0.CO;2
© 2003 Geological Society of America
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Evidence of microbial consortia metabolizing within a low-latitude mountain glacier

R. Kramer Campen*,1, Todd Sowers*,1 and Richard B. Alley*,1

1 Department of Geosciences and EMS Environment Institute, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, USA

Carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrous oxide (N2O), and methane (CH4) concentrations of ice samples from a South American mountain glacier are larger than those in coeval polar ice cores. Of the six possible mechanisms that may cause the composition of air measured in ice cores to depart from that of the overlying troposphere (gravitational fractionation, thermal fractionation, gases trapped in refrozen meltwater, atmospheric heterogeneity, abiotic chemical reactions, and biologically mediated chemical reactions), only metabolism of a consortium of microorganisms within the ice can explain our data.

Key Words: geomicrobiology • evolution • ice cores • ecology




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