Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Heuer, Verena B.
• Lever, Mark A.
• Morono, Yuki
• Teske, Andreas

Titel

The Limits of Life and the Biosphere in Earth’s Interior

Ist Teil von

• Oceanography (Washington, D.C.), 2019-03, Vol.32 (1), p.208-211

Ort / Verlag

Rockville: Oceanography Society

Erscheinungsjahr

2019

Quelle

EZB Electronic Journals Library

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Fifty years of scientific ocean drilling have shown that microorganisms are widespread deep inside the ocean floor. Microbial populations exist in both organic-matter-rich and nutrient-poor sediments, in sediments that are millions of years old and are buried to over a kilometer depth, and deep inside the basaltic oceanic crust. In these varied environments, metabolic activity is extraordinarily low, but microbial cells remain physiologically active or survive in their dormant phases. The total amount of subsurface biomass is still being debated, and the factors posing ultimate limits to deep life and the habitability of Earth remain to be resolved.