dorsal/arxiv
View SchemaMicrobial origin of excess greenhouse gases in glacial ice
| Authors | H. C. Tung, N. E. Bramall, P. B. Price |
|---|---|
| Categories | |
| ArXiv ID | q-bio/0506041 |
| URL | https://arxiv.org/abs/q-bio/0506041 |
Abstract
We report the discovery of methanogenic archaea that account for abrupt factor 10 increases in methane concentration found by E. Brook at depths of 2954 and 3036 m in the GISP2 (Greenland Ice Sheet Project 2) ice core. The total microbial concentration we measured with direct cell counts tracks the excesses of methanogens that we identified by their F420 fluorescence. The highly localized (<1 m thick) layers of methanogens suggest flow induced mixing of layers of microbe laden anaerobic basal ice with glacial ice. The metabolic rate we found for microbes at 2954 and 3036 m lies roughly on the Arrhenius line for microbes imprisoned in rock, sediment, and basal ice. Equating the loss rate of methane recently discovered in the Martian atmosphere to the production rate by possible methanogens, we estimate that their Martian habitat would be at a temperature of ~0 degrees C and that the concentration, if uniformly distributed in a 100 m thick layer, would be 0.04 cell per cubic centimeter.
{
"annotation_id": "24ffc8f1-4e55-40d2-b0ee-2d897f283c37",
"date_created": "2026-03-02T18:01:31.807000Z",
"date_modified": "2026-03-02T18:01:31.807000Z",
"file_hash": "e96d574c81d793cb2d9461795a1ab41ebc0b1358e66864dec78f2e3edf86cfd3",
"private": false,
"record": {
"abstract": "We report the discovery of methanogenic archaea that account for abrupt\nfactor 10 increases in methane concentration found by E. Brook at depths of\n2954 and 3036 m in the GISP2 (Greenland Ice Sheet Project 2) ice core. The\ntotal microbial concentration we measured with direct cell counts tracks the\nexcesses of methanogens that we identified by their F420 fluorescence. The\nhighly localized (\u003c1 m thick) layers of methanogens suggest flow induced mixing\nof layers of microbe laden anaerobic basal ice with glacial ice. The metabolic\nrate we found for microbes at 2954 and 3036 m lies roughly on the Arrhenius\nline for microbes imprisoned in rock, sediment, and basal ice. Equating the\nloss rate of methane recently discovered in the Martian atmosphere to the\nproduction rate by possible methanogens, we estimate that their Martian habitat\nwould be at a temperature of ~0 degrees C and that the concentration, if\nuniformly distributed in a 100 m thick layer, would be 0.04 cell per cubic\ncentimeter.",
"arxiv_id": "q-bio/0506041",
"authors": [
"H. C. Tung",
"N. E. Bramall",
"P. B. Price"
],
"categories": [
"q-bio.PE",
"q-bio.CB"
],
"title": "Microbial origin of excess greenhouse gases in glacial ice",
"url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/q-bio/0506041"
},
"schema_id": "dorsal/arxiv",
"source": {
"execution_id": "96a49445-91b3-402e-a563-0be7faa7f893",
"id": "arXiv Dataset IDs",
"type": "Model",
"variant": "snapshot-2026-03-01",
"version": "0.1.0"
},
"user_id": 1000002
}