TY  - JOUR
AU  - Bulat Sergey A, Alekhina Irina A.
PY  - 2011//
TI  - Searching for life in extreme environments relevant to Jovians Europa: Lessons from subglacial ice studies at Lake Vostok (East Antarctica)
JO  - Advances in Space Research
SP  - 697
EP  - 701
VL  - 48
IS  - 4
KW  - Subglacial environments
KW  - Antarctica
KW  - Low biomass
KW  - Forward contamination
KW  - Astrobiology
KW  - Icy worlds
KW  -
N2  - The objective was to estimate the genuine microbial content of ice samples from refrozen water (accretion ice) from the subglacial Lake Vostok (Antarctica) buried beneath the 4-km thick East Antarctic ice sheet. The samples were extracted by heavy deep ice drilling from 3659 m below the surface. High pressure, a low carbon and chemical content, isolation, complete darkness and the probable excess of oxygen in water for millions of years characterize this extreme environment. A decontamination protocol was first applied to samples selected for the absence of cracks to remove the outer part contaminated by handling and drilling fluid. Preliminary indications showed the accretion ice samples to be almost gas free with a low impurity content. Flow cytometry showed the very low unevenly distributed biomass while repeated microscopic observations were unsuccessful.
SN  - 0273-1177
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.asr.2010.11.024
N1  - exported from refbase (http://publi.ipev.fr/polar_references/show.php?record=3463), last updated on Wed, 03 Jul 2024 12:25:27 +0200
ID  - BulatSergeyA2011
ER  -