Abstract
Exploration of Life in Deep Subseafloor Sediments
Highlights
Study of subseafloor life has increased steadily over the last 30 years
More recent data from Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Leg 201 suggest that the sites used for these estimates are not truly representative of the full range of subseafloor sediments; cell concentrations in Peru Margin sediments were close to these historic averages, but cell concentrations in the open-ocean sites with the lowest levels of microbial activity were far lower (ODP Sites 1225 and 1231; Figure 3)
This study indicated that the hydrate sites, regardless of location, were dominated by deep-sea archaeal group (DSAG) in the Archaeal clone libraries, and JS1, Planctomycetes, and Chloroflexi in the Bacterial clone libraries
Summary
The scientific ocean drilling community has been retrieving cores from hundreds of meters below the seafloor since the inception of the Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP) in 1968. While microbiological research was not part of the scientific impetus for the creation of DSDP, it became apparent to geochemists that some of the observations in pore water chemistry indicated microbiological activity at great depth (e.g., Claypool and Kaplan, 1974). Site after site yielded profiles of microbiologically relevant compounds (e.g., sulfate, methane) that indicated microbial activity
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