US EditionAncient microbes wake up after being frozen in Arctic permafrost for 40,000 years
- Scientists revived ancient microbes from a military tunnel that cuts into Alaskan permafrost, preserving organisms for 40,000 years in deep frozen soils.
- As Arctic permafrost melts, releasing stored greenhouse gases, researchers say microbial responses to thaw are a major unknown for how this affects regional ecology and climate change.
- Collecting frozen samples from the US Army Corps of Engineers' Permafrost Tunnel Research Facility, which descends more than 100 meters , researchers thawed microbes and published results in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences.
- Researchers found that revived microbes can break down organic matter and emit carbon dioxide, which matters for predicting emissions as thaw reaches deeper, ancient permafrost horizons.
- Because Arctic permafrost is already thawing, the study is timely for near-future climate projections that must account for newly active organisms and greenhouse gases.
17 Articles
17 Articles
Scientists 'reawaken' ancient microbes from permafrost — and discover they start churning out CO2 soon after
Researchers incubated permafrost samples from Alaska at different temperatures and found that microbes from the last ice age can reactivate and resume breaking down carbon.
Researchers in the US have revived microbes that have been frozen for tens of thousands of years – and warn of the consequences of deafness.
Scientists 'Woke Up' Ancient Life That Had Been Trapped In Alaskan Ice For 40,000 Years
Alaska-Glacier-Ice Scientists recently awakened ancient microbes that had been trapped in ice, some for around 40,000 years. The ancient life was discovered in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Permafrost Tunnel near Fairbanks, Alaska. According to a statement by the team of geologists and biologists from the University of Colorado-Boulder, they “discovered that if you thaw out permafrost, the microbes within will take a while to become active.”…
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