Life at the Frozen Limit: Microbial Carbon Metabolism Across a Late Pleistocene Permafrost Chronosequence.

ABSTRACT: Permafrost is an extreme habitat yet it hosts microbial populations that remain active over millennia. Using permafrost collected from a Pleistocene chronosequence (19 to 33 ka), we hypothesized that the functional genetic potential of microbial communities in permafrost would reflect microbial strategies to metabolize permafrost soluble organic matter (OM) in situ over geologic time. We also hypothesized that changes in the metagenome across the chronosequence would correlate with shifts in carbon chemistry, permafrost age, and paleoclimate at the time of permafrost formation. We combined high-resolution characterization of water-soluble OM by Fourier-transform ion-cyclotron-resonance mass spectrometry (FT-ICR MS), quantification of organic anions in permafrost water extracts, and

SUBMITTER: Leewis MC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7403407 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature