Unique lifeforms have been discovered thriving in a continuously frozen lake in remote Antarctica, shedding new light on where and how life on Earth can survive.
An entire ecosystem has been discovered thriving deep beneath the ice covering Lake Enigma in Antarctica. The lake is frozen year-round.
Scientists from Italy, the United States, and the United Kingdom say surveys and samples taken from the lake show diverse colonies of microorganisms call the lake home. A thick ice sheet overlays a layer of water that is kept liquid even at sub-zero temperatures.
Only certain types of microorganisms can survive these conditions.
“The perennially ice-covered lakes of Antarctic cold deserts provide a stable, low-disturbance environment that supports only microbial life,” the authors, led by Michail Yakimov of Italy’s National Research Council, wrote.
The findings have been published in the journal Communications Earth & Environment.
The lifeforms discovered at the bottom of Lake Enigma are “reminiscent of microbial assemblages from Earth’s early biosphere widespread in thermal regions and shallow marine basins on Earth today,” they added.
The organisms have formed “microbial mats” at the bottom of the lake. The microbial life encountered by the team was mainly bacteria, including cyanobacteria. They also discovered phytoplankton.
They clarified that it’s not uncommon to find life thriving at the bottom of frozen Antarctic lakes, though their findings mark the first discovery of microbial life at Lake Enigma. The survey also shows this lake hosts unique colonies of life distinct from other frozen Antarctic lakes.
“The lake has an unusual geochemistry and microbial diversity and is isolated from the external environment by a permanent ice cover 9 to 11 meters thick,” the noted.
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