Life In Rock Glaciers?
Evidence of Microbial activity in a rock glacier high above tree line in the rocky mountains, a barren environment previously thought to be devoid of life has been discovered by a team from the University of Colorado at Boulder.
Found in an intermittent stream draining from the glacier, the evidence includes traces of dissolved organic materialand high levels of nitrates, said Mark Williams, a fellow at CU -Boulder’s Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research. The high nitrate levels are believed to be a result of microbes metabolizing nitrogen within the glacier. Rock glaciers require an extremely cold environment, large amounts of rock debris and enough of a slope to allow them to slide.
This is a very surprising findings. Generally, it is believed rock glaciers are not biological deserts as had been previously thought by scientists. This is one more example that microbes can live in the most extreme of environments. The microbial signature discovered by the team in the rock glacier in the Green Lakes Valley watershed roughlyv30 miles west of Boulder, Colorado is similar to that found recently in semi-frozen lakes in the Dry Valleys of Antarctica. The unexpected discovery of microbes in that hostile Antarctica region has enthused scientists hunting for life in inhospitable environments. Both the amount of dissolved organic matter and nitrate levels from microbial activity in the rock glacier rose dramatically from the late spring to the early fall in 2003.