Elsevier

Earth-Science Reviews

Volume 34, Issue 4, August 1993, Pages 243-260
Earth-Science Reviews

The deep subterranean biosphere

https://doi.org/10.1016/0012-8252(93)90058-FGet rights and content

Abstract

The main purpose with this review is to summarise present research on the microbiology of deep subterranean environments, deeper than 50–100 m. Included are mainly studies where drilling, excavation, core sampling and ground water sampling have been made for research. Studies done in environments penetrated for commercial purposes, such as water wells, mining, oil recovery etc., have been dismissed because of the obvious risk for contamination during the penetration. Different measures that can be applied to reduce the risk of microbial contamination of sampled specimens by the access operations are discussed. The requirement for reliable estimations of the present microbial biomass, its activity and diversity in subterranean ecosystems, is fundamental. An array of different methods to achieve this goal are presented. The depth limit for subterranean life is suggested to be set by temperature, provided there is energy available for microbial life. If so, it should be possible to enrich thermophilic bacteria from deep hot ground waters which also has been done. There are only a few sites where the subterranean microbiology has been studied in multidisiplinary programs including chemistry and geology. The two most extensively published sites are the sediments of the Atlantic coastal plain of South Carolina, USA, studied in a subsurface program, initiated and sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, and crystalline bed-rock in Sweden studied in a program concerning the safety of future underground repositories for nuclear waste.

This review presents an array of independent reports suggesting that microbial life is widespread at depth in the crust of earth—the deep subterranean biosphere. The obvious consequences is that microbes may be involved in many subterranean geochemical processes, such as diagenesis, weathering, precipitation, and in oxidation or reduction reactions of metals, carbon, nitrogen and sulfur—just as they are in most terranean environments.

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