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takyon [soylentnews.org] writes:

Microbial activity could be found in compressed ice [sci-news.com], which may throw off measurements of carbon dioxide and broaden the habitability potential of exoplanets:

"As microbial activity and its influence on its local environment has never been taken into account when looking at ice-core gas samples it could provide a moderate source of error in climate history interpretations," said lead author Dr. Kelly Redeker [york.ac.uk], from the Department of Biology at the University of York.

"Respiration by bacteria may have slightly increased levels of carbon dioxide in pockets of air trapped within polar ice caps meaning that before human activity carbon dioxide levels may have been even lower than previously thought. In addition, the fact that we have observed metabolically active bacteria in the most pristine ice and snow is a sign of life proliferating in environments where you wouldn't expect it to exist. This suggests we may be able to broaden our horizons when it comes to thinking about which planets are capable of sustaining life."

Dr. Redeker and his colleagues from Northumbria University, the University Centre in Svalbard and the Universities of York and Sheffield looked at snow in is natural state, and in other areas they sterilized it using UV sterilizing lamps. When they compared the results, the researchers found unexpected levels of iodomethane [wikipedia.org] (methyl iodide) — a gas known to be produced by marine bacteria — in the untouched snow.

Microbial metabolism directly affects trace gases in (sub) polar snowpacks [royalsocietypublishing.org] (open, DOI: 10.1098/rsif.2017.0729) (DX [doi.org])

Original Submission