Bacterial Diversity in Antarctic Ice Sheets

Bacteria are a very diverse group of organisms. They can utilize many different metabolic pathways to consume and/or make food in their own special way. We characterize these bacteria into different groups based on how they consume or make food, and call different groups heterotrophs, autotrophs, etc.

Categories of bacteria based on mode of consumption/production

But what if I told you that some bacteria can choose how they want to consume their energy? These bacteria have the means to shift their trophic ability based on the materials available, varying from organotrophs to chemolithotrophs. These versatile bacteria are none other than the bacteria found under Arctic ice sheets in subglacial waters.

In Subglacial Lake Whillans, 800m below the Whillans Ice Stream in West Antarctica, diverse groups of bacteria and archaea were found, and through multiple analyses, researchers found information that demolishes a previous widely-accepted theory.

This theory speculated that the bacteria had inhabited the lake when an event caused seawater to be introduced under the ice sheet about 6,000 years ago. In actuality, they had been there for a lot longer. About a casual 30 million years longer.

These versatile buggers show us insight into the possibilities of diversity in aquatic life.