Glacial Lakes and their ecosystems

LeftofLarry
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Glacial Lakes and their ecosystems

One interesting recent discovery has been that of lakes that have been formed up to 15 million years ago. What's unique about these lakes is that they are found underneath antarctic glacial ice. What's even more mind boggling is that these lakes are known to contain microorganisms. A complete, independent, isolated evolved ecosystem.

Geomicrobiology of Subglacial Ice Above Lake Vostok, Antarctica

Science 10 December 1999:
Vol. 286. no. 5447, pp. 2141 - 2144
DOI: 10.1126/science.286.5447.2141

John C. Priscu, 1* Edward E. Adams, 2 W. Berry Lyons, 5 Mary A. Voytek, 6 David W. Mogk, 3 Robert L. Brown, 2 Christopher P. McKay, 7 Cristina D. Takacs, 1 Kathy A. Welch, 5 Craig F. Wolf, 1 Julie D. Kirshtein, 6 Recep Avci 4

Data from ice 3590 meters below Vostok Station indicate that the ice was accreted from liquid water associated with Lake Vostok. Microbes were observed at concentrations ranging from 2.8 ? 103 to 3.6 ? 104 cells per milliliter; no biological incorporation of selected organic substrates or bicarbonate was detected. Bacterial 16S ribosomal DNA genes revealed low diversity in the gene population. The phylotypes were closely related to extant members of the alpha- and beta-Proteobacteria and the Actinomycetes. Extrapolation of the data from accretion ice to Lake Vostok implies that Lake Vostok may support a microbial population, despite more than 106 years of isolation from the atmosphere.

1 Department of Biological Sciences,
2 Department of Civil Engineering,
3 Department of Earth Sciences,
4 Department of Physics, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT 59717, USA.
5 Department of Geology, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487, USA.
6 U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, VA 20192, USA.
7 Space Science Division, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffet Field, CA 94035, USA.

One thing I've always found interesting is...where does the bible describe these ecosystems? Where in the bible does it talk about glaciers? And also, how does the bible account for chemotrophs at the bottom of the ocean in the trenches, these chemotrophic ecosystems have thrived for millions of years outside the need for sunlight.

It is interesting how...theists, igonre these other facts regarding life on earth. I wonder whether Noah had room on his boat to account for glacial micorbes.

More importantly how exactly did the great flood affect antarctic ice? did it melt it? And also, if noah had 2 of every animal on teh boat, then how come is it penguins only live in the southern hemisphere? How did they get there? I know for a fact that Noah's boat didn't get down to antarctica...hmmm......

It's interesting because back then, they had no idea microbes were what caused disease...lol..which is why you don't see it in the bible, proving yet again, how fallacious the bible is.

Read some stuff..get educated:
http://salegos-scar.montana.edu/
http://www.physorg.com/news10272.html
ahh..screw you you guys are big boys and girls...go on google..lol...

Another moment of science with left of larry . Laughing out loud

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Yellow_Number_Five
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Glacial Lakes and their ecosystems

Glacial ecosystems are quite cool [corny pun intended Eye-wink], and my speculative side is quite tempted to draw analogies between such systems and what we could find on Europa. Seems to be the rule on earth - wherever there is water, life finds a way.

I am against religion because it teaches us to be satisfied with not understanding the world. - Richard Dawkins

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LeftofLarry
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Glacial Lakes and their ecosystems

Yellow_Number_Five wrote:
Glacial ecosystems are quite cool [corny pun intended Eye-wink], and my speculative side is quite tempted to draw analogies between such systems and what we could find on Europa. Seems to be the rule on earth - wherever there is water, life finds a way.

Right on...if the theory that life indeed came from "outerspace" through a meteorite (disproving the qu'ranic belief that god created a sheild from outerspace thingys..hahah), then one could hypthesize that a similar mechanism also could have evolved life on other moons/planets such as Europa. However, I could only imagine the selective pressures associated with that kind of environment and if the same type of microbes also landed in Europa as they did on earth, I wonder how differently they have/are going to be evolved.

Ahhh..the infinate possibilites of life.....

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