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Irvine-Fynn TDL, Edwards A, Stevens IT, Mitchell AC, Bunting P, Box JE, Cameron KA, Cook JM, Naegeli K, Rassner SME, Ryan JC, Stibal M, Williamson CJ, Hubbard A. Storage and export of microbial biomass across the western Greenland Ice Sheet. Nat Commun 2021; 12:3960. [PMID: 34172727 PMCID: PMC8233322 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-24040-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/14/2020] [Accepted: 05/21/2021] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
The Greenland Ice Sheet harbours a wealth of microbial life, yet the total biomass stored or exported from its surface to downstream environments is unconstrained. Here, we quantify microbial abundance and cellular biomass flux within the near-surface weathering crust photic zone of the western sector of the ice sheet. Using groundwater techniques, we demonstrate that interstitial water flow is slow (~10−2 m d−1), while flow cytometry enumeration reveals this pathway delivers 5 × 108 cells m−2 d−1 to supraglacial streams, equivalent to a carbon flux up to 250 g km−2 d−1. We infer that cellular carbon accumulation in the weathering crust exceeds fluvial export, promoting biomass sequestration, enhanced carbon cycling, and biological albedo reduction. We estimate that up to 37 kg km−2 of cellular carbon is flushed from the weathering crust environment of the western Greenland Ice Sheet each summer, providing an appreciable flux to support heterotrophs and methanogenesis at the bed. Microbes that colonise ice sheet surfaces are important to the carbon cycle, but their biomass and transport remains unquantified. Here, the authors reveal substantial microbial carbon fluxes across Greenland’s ice surface, in quantities that may sustain subglacial heterotrophs and fuel methanogenesis.
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Affiliation(s)
- T D L Irvine-Fynn
- Department of Geography and Earth Sciences, Aberystwyth University, Aberystwyth, UK.
| | - A Edwards
- Institute of Biological Environmental and Rural Sciences, Aberystwyth University, Aberystwyth, UK
| | - I T Stevens
- Department of Geography and Earth Sciences, Aberystwyth University, Aberystwyth, UK.,School of Geography, Politics and Sociology, Newcastle University, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK.,Department of Environmental Science, Aarhus University, Frederiksborgvej, Roskilde, Denmark
| | - A C Mitchell
- Department of Geography and Earth Sciences, Aberystwyth University, Aberystwyth, UK
| | - P Bunting
- Department of Geography and Earth Sciences, Aberystwyth University, Aberystwyth, UK
| | - J E Box
- Department of Glaciology and Climate, Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - K A Cameron
- Institute of Biological Environmental and Rural Sciences, Aberystwyth University, Aberystwyth, UK.,Department of Glaciology and Climate, Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland, Copenhagen, Denmark.,School of Geographical and Earth Sciences, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK
| | - J M Cook
- Institute of Biological Environmental and Rural Sciences, Aberystwyth University, Aberystwyth, UK.,Department of Environmental Science, Aarhus University, Frederiksborgvej, Roskilde, Denmark.,Department of Geography, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK
| | - K Naegeli
- Department of Geography and Earth Sciences, Aberystwyth University, Aberystwyth, UK.,Institute of Geography and Oeschger Center for Climate Change Research, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
| | - S M E Rassner
- Institute of Biological Environmental and Rural Sciences, Aberystwyth University, Aberystwyth, UK
| | - J C Ryan
- Institute at Brown for Environment and Society, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA
| | - M Stibal
- Department of Ecology, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague, Czechia
| | - C J Williamson
- Bristol Glaciology Centre, School of Geographical Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
| | - A Hubbard
- Centre for Gas Hydrate, Environment and Climate, Department of Geosciences, UiT-The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, Norway.,Geography Research Unit, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland
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Tedesco M, Fettweis X, den Broeke MR, Wal RSW, Smeets CJPP, Berg WJ, Serreze MC, Box JE. Record Summer Melt in Greenland in 2010. ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2011. [DOI: 10.1029/2011eo150002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- M. Tedesco
- City University of New York, New York, USA
| | | | - M. R. den Broeke
- Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research Utrecht, Utrecht, Netherlands
| | - R. S. W. Wal
- Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research Utrecht, Utrecht, Netherlands
| | - C. J. P. P. Smeets
- Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research Utrecht, Utrecht, Netherlands
| | - W. J. Berg
- Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research Utrecht, Utrecht, Netherlands
| | - M. C. Serreze
- Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado, Boulder, USA
| | - J. E. Box
- Byrd Polar Research Center, Ohio State University, Columbus, USA
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