Is there a deep, cold biosphere?

Details Is there a deep, cold biosphere? Is there a deep, cold biosphere?

Apr 2003

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2003eaeja.....1037p&link_type=abstract

EGS - AGU - EUG Joint Assembly, Abstracts from the meeting held in Nice, France, 6 - 11 April 2003, abstract #1037

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Scientific paper

Earth's biosphere is cold, with 14% being polar and 90% (by volume) cold ocean; more than 70% of Earth’s freshwater is present as ice. New discoveries of microbial life in cold and saline lakes, permanent lake ice and glacial ice are extending the bounds of our biosphere. The recent description of potential bacterial life in Lake Vostok, and the discovery of at least 100 other Antarctic subglacial lakes extends the known boundaries for life on Earth even further. We estimate that there are 1.2 × 1025 prokaryotic cells present in Antarctica's subglacial lakes. If the prokaryotes immured in the Antarctic ice sheet (8.8 × 1025 cells) are considered, the total number of prokaryotes in the liquid plus solid water phases of Antarctica is 10 × 1025 cells, which equates to 0.003 Pg of carbon (1 Pg = 1015 g). This carbon reservoir is similar to that for all of our planets freshwater rivers and lakes combined (0.004 Pg). The cryospheric carbon reservoir should be considered in future definitions of Earth's biosphere and included in calculations of Earth's carbon balance.

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