Geochemistry and Microbiology of the Extreme Aquatic Environment in Lake Vida, East Antarctica

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The proposed project is part of a collaborative research program, mainly with partners from the University of Illinois at Chicago, and closely related to an already approved NSF proposal. The project aims on an enhanced understanding of extreme aquatic ecosystems. Lake Vida in the Dry Valleys is among the most extreme aquatic ecosystems in the world. Within the scope of the overall project, the detailed investigation of biogeochemical processes and microbial communities in the lake ice, the lake water and in the sediments will address diversity, adaptive mechanisms and evolutionary processes in the context of the physical evolution of the environment of the aquatic ecosystems. The long-term focus of the German investigations is on the sedimentary inventory of the lake in order to obtain information on past changes in the physical environment of the ecosystem and to better understand the sedimentary characteristics of such extreme environments. The project applied for here is intended, in a first step, to ensure a successful drilling campaign of Lake Vida in austral summer 2010/2011, and to cover expedition and drilling costs, which are not covered by the US collaboration partners within the scope of NSF funding.