2023-05-04 21:42:25
The great glaciers of Greenland have long been perceived as white deserts made up of gigantic sheets of ice where living conditions are extremely difficult. However, a team of researchers has discovered that there is much more life in the cap than scientists have long thought.
Experts from the Department of Environmental Sciences at the University of Aarhus, Denmark, have observed microbes that have adapted to life on the ice. And not just one or two species, but many thousands.
“A small puddle of meltwater on a glacier can easily contain 4,000 different species,” explains Alexandre Anesio, professor at the University of Aarhus and member of the research team.
“They live on bacteria, algae, viruses and microscopic fungi. It’s a whole ecosystem that we didn’t know existed until recently,” he adds.
What do microbes live on?
Over the past fifty years, scientists have repeatedly been amazed at the possibilities for life to exist. Living beings have been found several kilometers underground, where there is neither sunlight nor oxygen. Billions of micro-organisms “eat” the minerals in the rock allowing them to survive in these conditions.
Researchers have shown that life can even survive in space. In 2007, European experts placed a colony of more than 3,000 microscopic bear cubs called tardigrades outside a satellite and put it into orbit around Earth.
The orbit lasted 10 days, following which the satellite returned to Earth. They then found that no less than 68% of the microbes survived the vacuum of space and the deadly radiation.
It is therefore not surprising that life can also thrive on glaciers. After all, there is sun, oxygen and water. However, until recently, researchers believed that ice did not contain enough nutrients to sustain life. But they were wrong, notes Professor Anesio. “There is food. But in very small quantities,” he says.
The case of black algae
One of the microorganisms on ice that experts have studied the most is a small black algae. This algae grows on ice and is of particular interest to scientists.
“As the ice darkens, it becomes more difficult to reflect sunlight. Instead, the heat from the sun’s rays is absorbed by the ice, which begins to melt. The more the ice melts, the more the temperature on Earth increases. Algae therefore play an important role in global warming,” says Anesio.
He says that in recent years, more and more areas of the ice have been “stained” by algae, which has accelerated the melting of the ice. The professor calculated that the algae increase the melting of the ice by regarding 20%.
Algae on the ice already existed before humans triggered global warming through industrialization, he points out, adding that climate change means that spring is coming earlier and earlier in the Arctic and that, therefore, algae have a longer season to grow and spread.
“Seaweed is spreading a little more every year. When I go to Greenland, I now see large areas where the ice is completely dark due to algae,” says Anesio.
1683240444
#Greenlands #ice #cap #teems #microorganisms #Eye #Arctic
