Construction and Operation of Biospectrologger in a Borehole in Polar Ice

该奖项提供为期一年的资金支持，用于在极地冰的钻孔中建造和操作生物光谱记录仪（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灰尘。同样的一般原理也可以用于研究冰川冰中微生物和生物分子随深度的变化。在冰川冰、寒冷的湖泊、永久冻土以及寒冷的深海水和沉积物中发现了适应贫营养低温环境的微生物。极地冰的浓度最低，从几百个到大约104个细胞/cm3，可能被风输送到大气中，与雪一起沉淀，并压实成冰。绝大多数都处于休眠或死亡状态。从冰芯中恢复的微生物的培养取得了不同程度的成功，在一小部分（~10-4 ~ ~10-2）休眠细胞中产生了集落形成单位。化学、物理和生物学的论证表明，每立方厘米有103个微生物可以从狭窄的液体静脉中的酸中提取足够的能量，这些酸被限制在固体冰中，可以存活几千年（或者一个较小的种群可以存活更长的时间）。目前还没有人在液体静脉中寻找活细菌。生物光谱记录仪将在2001/02年的野外季节在南极洲的simple Dome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.