Abstract
Did you know that the earth beneath your feet is teeming with life? Imagine yourself standing outside. If you started digging, at some point beneath the soil you would eventually hit hard rock—that is the bedrock forming the Earth’s crust. Even this seemingly solid material has cracks and pores that contain groundwater (water that is held in the ground), and where there is water, there can be life. Tiny, single-celled creatures called microbes survive and thrive in many environments on Earth that are inhospitable for all other life forms. This is also the case with deep bedrock, where only microbial life is possible. As sunlight and plant products are not available in this environment, microbes have to use chemical compounds for their food and energy sources. In this study, we investigated the preferred food for microbes living in the bedrock. We discovered that hydrogen is an important energy source for deep microbes, and that the microbial communities are able to change so that they can survive under changing environmental conditions.
Highlights
Life on the surface of the Earth is dependent on the energy of the Sun, which allows green plants to produce sugars and oxygen
A schematic representation of the design of the study and different methods used. Topmost part of this figure shows the microcosm setup with glass bottles where we put the groundwater and gave microbes different meals: (A) only inorganic carbon source (CO2) and energy source (H2) in gas phase, both naturally found in deep subsurface gases; (B) acetate as an organic carbon source and sulfate as an energy source; (C) acetate as an organic carbon source; and (D) sulfate as an energy source
The fingerprint patterns of microbial communities divided the microcosm samples into two groups: one group included the intrinsic fracture fluid sample and the microcosms incubated for 4 and 32 days and the other consisted of the microcosms after 68 days of incubation
Summary
At some point beneath the soil you would eventually hit hard rock—that is the bedrock forming the Earth’s crust. Even this seemingly solid material has cracks and pores that contain groundwater (water that is held in the ground), and where there is water, there can be life. Single-celled creatures called microbes survive and thrive in many environments on Earth that are inhospitable for all other life forms. This is the case with deep bedrock, where only microbial life is possible.
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