Study Published In Nature Geoscience Finds Marine-Specific Microbial Community Dominating Blood Falls Brine Distinct From All Nearby Freshwater And Terrestrial Communities Confirming Ocean Origin Of Water Sealed Under Ice For Millions Of Years
According to Phys.org, salty water flowing through Antarctica’s Blood Falls contains a distinct community of marine-specific microorganisms, providing evidence that the brine system beneath Taylor Glacier has a marine origin, according to a paper published in Nature Geoscience.
Blood Falls, located at the edge of Taylor Glacier in McMurdo Dry Valleys, is named for its dramatic outpouring of crimson water; coloured by iron-rich brine into proglacial Lake Bonney below. While previous geochemical studies suggested the subglacial brine likely originated when seawater inundated Taylor Valley during past warm periods before becoming isolated as sea levels fell and the glacier advanced, direct biological evidence had been lacking.
The new study found that marine-associated microorganisms dominate the brine-fed ice, mud and sediment at Blood Falls unlike the surrounding freshwater and terrestrial communities. The higher overlap with oceanic eukaryotes supports an ancient seawater origin and offers new insights into how microbial communities can persist through major environmental transitions.
Somewhere beneath the Antarctic ice, a pocket of seawater has sat sealed since the last time that valley was warm enough to flood. The microbes inside it remember the ocean.
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