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When the Vital Signs of Microbial Life Go Cold, Does That Mean the Pulse Is Gone? Microbial Life Persists at the Limits of Cryoenvironments on Earth

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Microbes: The Foundation Stone of the Biosphere

Part of the book series: Advances in Environmental Microbiology ((AEM,volume 8))

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Abstract

Cryoenvironments on Earth represent a natural laboratory in which we can observe the natural constraints to microbial activity and survival at low temperature. Microorganisms in sub-zero environments must contend with numerous stressors, and though microorganisms are nearly ubiquitous on this planet, the question of their activity under extremes of temperature is an open one. This essay describes soils in University Valley, located in the McMurdo Dry Valleys of Antarctica—a rare site in which microbial activity cannot be measured. Though the signs of active life were absent, the region is by no means dead. Microbial life persists in this valley, as in other cryoenvironments, and potentially on other planetary bodies within our solar system.

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  1. University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, Canada

    Jacqueline Marie Goordial

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  1. Jacqueline Marie Goordial
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Correspondence to Jacqueline Marie Goordial .

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  1. Cincinnati, OH, USA

    Christon J. Hurst

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Goordial, J.M. (2021). When the Vital Signs of Microbial Life Go Cold, Does That Mean the Pulse Is Gone? Microbial Life Persists at the Limits of Cryoenvironments on Earth. In: Hurst, C.J. (eds) Microbes: The Foundation Stone of the Biosphere. Advances in Environmental Microbiology, vol 8. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-63512-1_6

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