Construction and Operation of Biospectrologger in a Borehole in Polar Ice

0119988价格该奖项提供了一年的资金支持，用于在极地冰的钻孔中建造和操作生物光谱仪（BSL）。 这种光学装置已经开发出来，并经过测试，用于测量极地冰中的尘埃。 同样的一般原理可以用来研究微生物和生物分子在冰川冰中的深度函数。 适应贫营养低温环境的微生物存在于冰川、寒冷的湖泊、永久冻土以及寒冷的深海水和沉积物中。 极地冰的浓度最低，从几百个到104个细胞/立方厘米，可能是被风带到大气中，与雪一起沉淀，然后压实成冰。 绝大多数都是休眠或死亡。 从冰芯中回收的微生物的培养取得了不同的成功，在休眠细胞的一部分（~10-4至~10-2）中产生了菌落形成单位。 化学、物理和生物学方面的论据表明，每立方厘米多达103个微生物可以从狭窄的液态冰脉中的酸中提取足够的能量，以生存数千年（或更少的人口相应地更长的时间）。 目前还没有人在液体静脉中寻找活细菌。 2001/2002年野外季节将在南极洲的西普尔穹对生物光谱测井仪进行现场测试，作为那里现有钻孔测井计划的一部分。

0119988PriceThis award provides support for one year of funding to construct and operate a biospectrologger (BSL) in a borehole in polar ice. Such an optical device has already been developed and tested for measuring dust in polar ice. The same general principle can be exploited to study microbes and biomolocules as a function of depth in glacial ice. Microbes adapted to oligotrophic, low-temperature environments are found in glacial ice, frigid lakes, in permafrost and in cold, deep ocean water and sediments. Polar ice contains the lowest concentrations, from a few hundred to about 104 cells/cm3, probably transported by wind into the atmosphere, precipitated with snow, and compacted into ice. The great majority are dormant or dead. With varying success, cultivation of microbes recovered from ice cores yields colony-forming units in a fraction (~10-4 to ~10-2 ) of dormant cells. Chemical, physical and biological arguments indicate that as many as 103 microbes/cm3 can extract enough energy from acids confined in narrow liquid veins in otherwise solid ice to survive for a few thousand years (or a smaller population for a correspondingly longer time). No search has yet been carried out for living bacteria in liquid veins. The biospectrologger will be field tested at Siple Dome, Antarctica during the 2001/02 field season as part of an existing borehole logging program there.