Posted on 12/10/2018 11:43:51 AM PST by ETL
Barely living "zombie" bacteria and other forms of life constitute an immense amount of carbon deep within Earth's subsurface—245 to 385 times greater than the carbon mass of all humans on the surface, according to scientists nearing the end of a 10-year international collaboration to reveal Earth's innermost secrets.
On the eve of the American Geophysical Union's annual meeting, scientists with the Deep Carbon Observatory today reported several transformational discoveries, including how much and what kinds of life exist in the deep subsurface under the greatest extremes of pressure, temperature, and low nutrient availability.
Drilling 2.5 kilometers into the seafloor, and sampling microbes from continental mines and boreholes more than 5 km deep, scientists have used the results to construct models of the ecosystem deep within the planet.
With insights from now hundreds of sites under the continents and seas, they have approximated the size of the deep biosphere—2 to 2.3 billion cubic km (almost twice the volume of all oceans) - as well as the carbon mass of deep life: 15 to 23 billion tonnes (an average of at least 7.5 tonnes of carbon per cu km subsurface).
The work also helps determine types of extraterrestrial environments that could support life.
Among many key discoveries and insights:
Ever-increasing accuracy and the declining cost of DNA sequencing, coupled with breakthroughs in deep ocean drilling technologies (pioneered on the Japanese scientific vessel Chikyu, designed to ultimately drill far beneath the seabed in some of the planet's most seismically-active regions) made it possible for researchers to take their first detailed look at the composition of the deep biosphere.
There are comparable efforts to drill ever deeper beneath continental environments, using sampling devices that maintain pressure to preserve microbial life (none thought to pose any threat or benefit to human health).
To estimate the total mass of Earth's subcontinental deep life, for example, scientists compiled data on cell concentration and microbial diversity from locations around the globe.
Led by Cara Magnabosco of the Flatiron Institute Center for Computational Biology, New York, and an international team of researchers, subsurface scientists factored in a suite of considerations, including global heat flow, surface temperature, depth and lithology—the physical characteristics of rocks in each location—to estimate that the continental subsurface hosts 2 to 6 × 10^29 cells.
Combined with estimates of subsurface life under the oceans, total global Deep Earth biomass is approximately 15 to 23 petagrams (15 to 23 billion tonnes) of carbon.
Says Mitch Sogin of the Marine Biological Laboratory Woods Hole, USA, co-chair of DCO's Deep Life community of more than 300 researchers in 34 countries: "Exploring the deep subsurface is akin to exploring the Amazon rainforest. There is life everywhere, and everywhere there's an awe-inspiring abundance of unexpected and unusual organisms.
"Molecular studies raise the likelihood that microbial dark matter is much more diverse than what we currently know it to be, and the deepest branching lineages challenge the three-domain concept introduced by Carl Woese in 1977. Perhaps we are approaching a nexus where the earliest possible branching patterns might be accessible through deep life investigation.
"Ten years ago, we knew far less about the physiologies of the bacteria and microbes that dominate the subsurface biosphere," says Karen Lloyd, University of Tennessee at Knoxville, USA. "Today, we know that, in many places, they invest most of their energy to simply maintaining their existence and little into growth, which is a fascinating way to live.
"Today too, we know that subsurface life is common. Ten years ago, we had sampled only a few sites—the kinds of places we'd expect to find life. Now, thanks to ultra-deep sampling, we know we can find them pretty much everywhere, albeit the sampling has obviously reached only an infinitesimally tiny part of the deep biosphere."
"Our studies of deep biosphere microbes have produced much new knowledge, but also a realization and far greater appreciation of how much we have yet to learn about subsurface life," says Rick Colwell, Oregon State University, USA. "For example, scientists do not yet know all the ways in which deep subsurface life affects surface life and vice versa. And, for now, we can only marvel at the nature of the metabolisms that allow life to survive under the extremely impoverished and forbidding conditions for life in deep Earth."
Among the many remaining enigmas of deep life on Earth:
Movement: How does deep life spread—laterally through cracks in rocks? Up, down? How can deep life be so similar in South Africa and Seattle, Washington? Did they have similar origins and were separated by plate tectonics, for example? Or do the communities themselves move? What roles do big geological events (such as plate tectonics, earthquakes; creation of large igneous provinces; meteoritic bombardments) play in deep life movements?
Origins: Did life start deep in Earth (either within the crust, near hydrothermal vents, or in subduction zones) then migrate up, toward the sun? Or did life start in a warm little surface pond and migrate down? How do subsurface microbial zombies reproduce, or live without dividing for millions to tens of millions of years?
Energy: Is methane, hydrogen, or natural radiation (from uranium and other elements) the most important energy source for deep life? Which sources of deep energy are most important in different settings? How do the absence of nutrients, and extreme temperatures and pressure, impact microbial distribution and diversity in the subsurface?
"Discoveries regarding the nature and extent of the deep microbial biosphere are among the crowning achievements of the Deep Carbon Observatory. Deep life researchers have opened our eyes to remarkable vistas—emerging views of life that we never knew existed."says Robert Hazen, senior staff scientist, Geophysical Laboratory, Carnegie Institution for Science, and DCO Executive Director.
"They are not Christmas ornaments, but the tiny balls and tinsel of deep life look they could decorate a tree as well as Swarovski glass. Why would nature make deep life beautiful when there is no light, no mirrors?" says Jesse Ausubel of the Rockefeller University, a founder of the DCO.
Explore further: Microorganisms in the subsurface seabed on evolutionary standby
Provided by: Deep Carbon Observatory
I can't say I understand all of this, other than that it shows there is an urgent need for more government regulation to save these threatened life forms.
/s
And the giant mushrooms looked tasty.
“If they can live in such harsh environments the surface world could be a bonanza for them and a disaster for us. “
Actually no. They have adapted to this extreme harsh environment and that is where they thrive. Take them out of that environment and they die as the new environment is harsh to them. A perfect example is the Thermopylae bacteria that live in the boiling springs in Yellowstone park. Take that bacteria out of the springs and it dies.
Actually we have been exposed to these bacteria over the eons. When great meteors hit the earth ejecta from the impact scattered material from deep within the earth over the surface. Do not worry about the bugs deep in the earth.
Click the below link to see the effects of a large meteor impacting the earth.
https://www.livescience.com/56914-dino-killing-asteroid-punched-through-earths-crust.html
These changes may have proven critical for the evolution of life on Earth, and perhaps on other planets, Gulick said. "When you get rocks with 10 percent more pore space, microbial life living below the surface may find new habitats on the surface," he said. "Our next area of research involves looking at whether ecosystems can get started by craters."
I was thinking the leftists might say the bacteria are causing global warming and then insist the bacteria be protected....
Thanks ETL.
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Throws a wrinkle in the peak oil myth, eh?
I had a petroleum engineering prof that told us to keep our minds open to what may seem doubtful at the time. He was a brilliant old fart, yet lived on the cutting edge of technology.
Seems like good common sense to me. As we know, arrogant lib scientists are always quick to except something as fact and rule everything else out. Then later they are shown to be the know-it-all jerks that they are.
BTW, I was a geology major back in the 80s. Nearly completed a BS, but for one geology field trip course and a few dopey non-major courses.
I was at a geology meeting a few months ago talking about the Missoula floods - where the ice dams from the continental glaciers would rupture sending huge floods of water into Washington state which carved out huge river channels, created huge hills, etc. All in a day or two (happened repeatedly over thousands of years as the dam would refreeze, rupture, repeat.
When the guy first proposed that these features were from huge floods he was laughed at (in the 1920’s).
There was a guy at the USGS that let this guy on the rope for many years. When the USGS guy finally retired in the 40’s and got his pension, then he came out with his years and years of research that completed the missing puzzle on the catastrophic nature of the geology. He would have been fired if he had gone against the “known science” of geology being slow and steady forces over large lengths of time.
When a politician screws up, he might lose an election. When a scientist screws up, he might lose a grant.
When an engineer screws up, he could lose a city. Who’d you trust?
How do they know? Did they go down there and measure it all?
Now that’s funny
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