Mathematics – Logic
Scientific paper
Dec 2008
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2008agufm.p51b1417d&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2008, abstract #P51B-1417
Mathematics
Logic
0456 Life In Extreme Environments, 0486 Soils/Pedology (1865), 0702 Permafrost (0475), 0793 Biogeochemistry (0412, 0414, 1615, 4805, 4912), 6225 Mars
Scientific paper
Recent results from the Phoenix Mars Lander revealed that, similar, to the dry permafrost/ice table region in high elevation Antarctic Dry Valleys (ADV), atmosphere just above the permanent ground ice on Mars is also saturated with water vapor and the soils above it bear a remarkable visual resemblance to the dry permafrost of the high ADV, without implying they are compositionally the same material. We hypothesized that if microorganisms are found in the ice table region of the ADV and this region is proven similar to the analogous site on Mars, we can argue for habitability of Mars soils. With this in mind, we undertook a study of ice table microbial ecology in soils collected from the ADV and spanning a range of climate regimes. These findings are from a preliminary microbiological investigation and combine microscopy, phylogenetic analysis, geochemistry, mineralogy and field observations. Our microbiological study is an addendum to an IPY project detailing soil characteristics and making in situ measurements with Earth analogue Phoenix Lander instruments. We found that both low elevation 'wet permafrost' and high elevation 'dry permafrost' ADV soils had low but significant numbers of bacteria present at the ice table surface but the types of organisms and their distribution in the soil profile reflected prevailing environmental conditions at each site. We will present our detailed analyses and we suggest, that, based on this preliminary study, the idea of using microbes as indicators of habitability, when tied to environmental parameters such as climate, soil chemistry, mineralogy, and structure as well as local geology, is a feasible way to test hypotheses of what constitutes a habitable environment on Mars.
Douglas Scott
Kanik Inanc
Kounaves Samuel
McKay Chris P.
Ming Dengming
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