February 18, 2025
Science

An unprecedented ecosystem found under the ice of an Antarctic lake

  • December 24, 2024
  • 0

What did scientists find Enigma Lake is permanently covered in ice. At first scientists thought that it was frozen to the bottom, but it turned out that this

An unprecedented ecosystem found under the ice of an Antarctic lake

What did scientists find

Enigma Lake is permanently covered in ice. At first scientists thought that it was frozen to the bottom, but it turned out that this was not the case: a hidden layer of fresh water was discovered under the surface. According to the news of 24 Kanal based on INGV, the most interesting thing is that various microorganisms live here.

During an expedition to Antarctica from November 2019 to January 2020, researchers explored the lake using ground-penetrating radar and discovered: at least 12 meters of liquid water under the ice. The researchers then drilled through the ice and sent a camera to explore the depths.

Enigma Lake
Lake Enigma / Photography Contact Earth and Environment

The team first tested to determine where the water was coming from. This was important to determine because the area has little rainfall, strong winds, and intense solar evaporation, so the water in Lake Enigma must have already dried up.

Based on the chemical composition of salts in water, researchers hypothesized that: The water in the lake is constantly replenished from the nearby glacier through an as yet unknown underground route.

A hidden ecosystem

Scientists have discovered that the waters of Enigma Lake, despite being isolated from the atmosphere, are home to various types of microbial life. Cover the lake bottom with clumps known as microbial carpets. Many of these organisms photosynthesize because the lake has a high concentration of dissolved oxygen.

A microbial carpet covers the bottom of the lake
The puffy surface is the result of the lake bottom being covered with a colony of microbes / Photo Communications Earth & Environment

Some of these carpets formed thin and spiky coatings on the bottom of the lake. Others resembled a “crumpled thick carpet”, sometimes forming large amorphous tree-like structures up to 40 centimeters high and 50-60 centimeters in diameter.

Among the microbial inhabitants were various species of patesis bacteria, which are small single-celled organisms that attach to larger host cells to form mutually beneficial or predatory relationships. These organisms have never before been found in ice-covered lakes and cannot normally survive in high oxygen conditions. Therefore, scientists conclude that these particular patessibacteria may have it. They have developed unique metabolic tricks to survive.

A microbial carpet covers the bottom of the lake
A microbial carpet covers the bottom of the lake / Photo Contact Earth and Environment

What does it give us?

Enigmatic environments exist on icy moons such as Europa or Enceladus. The extreme ecosystem of a lake in Antarctica that scientists studied gives us insight into the conditions under which microbial life could exist on other worlds.

Source: 24 Tv

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *