Microbes in Thawing Permafrost: The Unknown Variable in the Climate Change Equation

Journal Article · Sun Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 2012 · The ISME Journal: Multidisciplinary Journal of Microbial Ecology

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/ismej.2011.163· OSTI ID:1037020

Graham, David E ^[1]; Wallenstein, Matthew D ^[2]; Vishnivetskaya, T. ^[3]; Waldrop, Mark P. ^[4]; Phelps, Tommy Joe ^[1]; Pfiffner, Susan M. ^[3]; Onstott, T. C. ^[5]; Whyte, Lyle ^[6]; Rivkina, Elizaveta ^[7]; Gilichinsky, David A ^[7]; Elias, Dwayne A ^[1]; Mackelprang, Rachel ^[8]; Verberkmoes, Nathan C ^[1]; Wagner, Dirk ^[9]; Wullschleger, Stan D ^[1]; Jansson, Janet ^[10]

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1. ORNL
2. Colorado State University, Fort Collins
3. University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK)
4. U.S. Geological Survey, Menlo Park, CA
5. Princeton University
6. McGill University, Montreal, Quebec
7. Institute of Physicochemical and Biological Problems in Soil Science, Russian Academy of Sciences
8. U.S. Department of Energy, Joint Genome Institute
9. Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, Potsdam, Germany
10. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL)

Considering that 25% of Earth's terrestrial surface is underlain by permafrost (ground that has been continuously frozen for at least 2 years), our understanding of the diversity of microbial life in this extreme habitat is surprisingly limited. Taking into account the total mass of perennially frozen sediment (up to several hundred meters deep), permafrost contains a huge amount of buried, ancient organic carbon (Tarnocai et al., 2009).

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC)
• DOE Contract Number: DE-AC05-00OR22725
• OSTI ID: 1037020
• Journal Information: The ISME Journal: Multidisciplinary Journal of Microbial Ecology, Vol. 6, Issue 4; ISSN 1751-7362
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
CARBON
CLIMATIC CHANGE
HABITAT
METERS
PERMAFROST
SEDIMENTS
THAWING
Permafrost
Metagenome
Metaproteome
Microbiology
Commentary