Long-Term Sustainability of a High-Energy, Low-Diversity Crustal Biome
- 20 October 2006
- journal article
- other
- Published by American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Science
- Vol. 314 (5798) , 479-482
- https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1127376
Abstract
Geochemical, microbiological, and molecular analyses of alkaline saline groundwater at 2.8 kilometers depth in Archaean metabasalt revealed a microbial biome dominated by a single phylotype affiliated with thermophilic sulfate reducers belonging to Firmicutes . These sulfate reducers were sustained by geologically produced sulfate and hydrogen at concentrations sufficient to maintain activities for millions of years with no apparent reliance on photosynthetically derived substrates.Keywords
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