Mr. Wordy: Bacteria Beneath the Ice

Imagine, if you will, an ancient lake vibrant with life. Trees and plants around the fertile waters grow to mammoth proportions. The environment is idyllic. However, as tectonic plates shift and the weather grows colder the lake, with its flora and fauna must now endure artic temperatures. A glacier forms, sealing the lake from the outside world. Volcanic thermals leak heat and salt into the once tepid waters, keeping them liquid. For millennia the lake exists on, buried under ice, until 2012 when Russian researchers pieced the ice cap over the waters.

Lake Vostok is a fresh water sub-glacial lake in Antarctica. It lies 2.2 miles beneath 20 million year old ice. The lake itself is believed to be a sealed environment and it is formed in proximity to geothermal activity. This geothermal activity has likely provided what little nutrients available in Lake Vostok. Hoping to find life, researchers looked for nuclides sequences. Indeed, the DNA and RNA present in the samples included viral, bacterial and eukaryotic genetic material. Sequencing of ice and water samples revealed not only the presence of bacteria in Lake Vostok but suggested the possibility of more complex, multicellular life forms. The research team found E.coli and members of Salmonella. The species found “often have symbiotic or parasitic relationships with their eukaryotic host, which include fish and annelids” ^{(Buried Lake
Vostok)}. The waters of Lake Vostok are “filled with a microscopic menagerie. Some needed oxygen-rich environments while others did well in oxygen-poor ones. Some liked extremely salty spots, some thrived in extremely cold places and some preferred the extreme heat. Some liked highly alkaline environments while others liked the opposite -- highly acidic ones.”^{(Trapped in Antarctic ice)} The extreme environmental pressures the critters of Lake Vostok face and the isolation from its planet’s environment is not unlike the conditions at the bottom of similar glaciers found on Mars and Jupiter’s Europa. Understanding the systems of that allow biota to thrive in isolation may will aid in our understanding of Genus and the terraformation of planets. Given the capacity of life on our own planet, Martian ice fishing doesn’t seem as improbable as it did a few minutes ago.

When first tapped in March of 2012 the waters of Lake Vostok were said to contain previously undiscovered life. The revelation had to be redacted after it was discovered that the drilling procedure resulted in contamination. Given the diversity of life found in the second sample is mostly likely pure. However, we should not discount the effects of contamination. Given the tenacity of bacterial spores and glacial movement the waters may have been inoculated after the formation of glaciers. The hope of finding a new life form in Lake Vostok is not without merit, the presence of host bacteria indicates a host. Multicellular critters or not new morphologies and mutation may exist among the biota.

Lake Vostok is one of 400 sub glacial lakes known to exist beneath the ice. Isolated lakes like these can be found beneath glaciers worldwide. They can also be considered fossilized aquifers, pockets of water trapped by the surrounding geology. It becomes important to understand the biological dangers the ancient biota may pose. Climate studies indicate rising global temperatures. Advances in drilling could relieve water shortages in arid climates. As fossil aquifers have the possibility to become exposed so do the biota they carry. Mutations shared between bacterial colonies have the potential to become pathogenic. While it is unlikely that the isolated Lake Vostok would become cite zero for a world-wide contagion, it is wise to always be mindful when handling such encounters. Contaminating one’s sample is not always the worst thing that can happen.

Why is Lake Vostok important? The lake can help our understanding of ecosystems. If fish are found to be present in the lake it will further our curiosity as to the limits of life; specifically where life can exist and the environmental mechanisms involved. In 1991 an experiment took place in southern Arizona. Bio dome 2 is the site of an ecological laboratory. It is designed to house a virtually independent ecosystem from soil to planets to animals. While the facility provided and continues to provide excellent data, it’s a technical marvel. The discovery of natural biospheres seems to confirm the probability of microsystems. With study, we can improve our technology and efficiency of these systems. This becomes especially helpful in space travel or should our planet’s environment change rapidly.

Works Cited

1. Trapped in Antarctic ice, Lake Vostok may teem with life http://www.latimes.com/news/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-lake-vostok-antarctica-ice-glacier-life-bacteria-20130708,0,148031.story

2. Buried Lake Vostok May Support a thriving Ecosystem two miles beneath the surface http://www.geekosystem.com/vostok-may-support-life/