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There’s a world going on underground, as Tom Waits sang it. University of Michigan researchers have produced evidence that life — copious amounts of life, in fact — exists far deeper below the Earth’s surface than previously thought.
Most of that is fungus.
Drawing water samples from gas well sites, the team identified 689 different species of fungus. Over a dozen of those were newly-discovered species.
Adding to our catalog of species is important work in and of itself. However, the study’s senior author, Tim James, says the findings necessitate revisions to our models of carbon sequestration.
“Regardless of whether these fungi originated in or were introduced to these deep spaces, many fungi possess adaptations that allow them to grow and influence the carbon dynamics deep in the Earth,” James told Phys.org, which first reported the finding. “Fungi need to be incorporated into models of carbon cycling and sequestration in the subsurface.”
That could have significant ramifications, either negative or positive, for the issue of climate change.
Life Locked in Stone Since the Ice Age
It has become a trope that the deep ocean is the last frontier for exploration on Earth. Yet the Michigan team’s findings shed light on a world that’s even darker and more inaccessible than those trenches.
The gas wells in question burrow up to 500 meters deep in the Antrim Shale of the Great Lakes region. That far down in the bedrock, the water is quite unlike the aquifers closer to the surface. While shallower groundwater is replenished gradually by rainfall, analysis of the water from the gas wells shows it came from melting glaciers at the end of the last Ice Age.
That means these microorganisms were last in contact with their surface brethren some 11,000 years ago. In that light, it’s somewhat surprising that only 13 of the 689 species identified by the team were previously unknown.
Previous research had uncovered evidence of DNA deep in the rock. However, the presumption of the scientific community had been that, cut off from the surface, it couldn’t have come from active organisms. The Michigan team’s findings show that to have been a faulty assumption. Indeed, they found a whole, thriving ecosystem, complete with predator-prey and parasite-host relationships between the various species.
Deep Rock Life Could Impact Climate Change Mitigation Efforts
Current climate models don’t account for active subsurface ecosystems. The working assumption is generally that carbon sequestered sufficiently deep is static unless released by something like a geothermal event.
Yet, living organisms breathe, so if a significant amount of that carbon is in the form of living biomass, it may not be as stable as previously thought. Anything that disturbs deep rock, like drilling operations, could add carbon to the atmosphere.
It’s not all bad news, though, because life also grows. The realization that there are ecosystems deep under the rock could lead to new strategies for sequestering carbon by nurturing them in places away from likely commercial operations.
Also in Science News
Invasive Species Disproportionately Problematic in the Global South
The unchecked spread of species outside their native range — also known as biological invasion — is responsible for an estimated 60% of species extinctions and $400 billion in economic loss, much of that in agriculture. Until recently, however, most research into those impacts was done on a local scale.
Now, there is a new Global Impacts Dataset of Invasive Alien Species (GIDIAS) to address that issue. One of the first findings to come out of GIDIAS is that it’s predominantly the Global South that suffers from the problem. That’s because these developing countries often have weak regulations, a high level of corruption, and a priority on economic growth.
Girl’s Death Highlights Transparency Issues in Chinese Gene Editing Research
China is at the cutting edge of gene therapy research, but its willingness to dabble in experimental treatments is a double-edged sword.
Science.org and Retraction Watch broke news last week of what appears to be the attempted cover-up of the death of a young girl who received one such treatment.
Zilong Qiu, who pioneered the treatment, had been a runner-up for Science’s Breakthrough of the Year after it worked successfully on a patient in Philadelphia. However, references to another patient in China disappeared from subsequent papers.
When journalists investigated, they found that she had died as a result of an immune response to the viruses used to carry out the genetic editing. Now, experts are calling for a review of Qiu’s work out of worries over a lack of transparency and potential downplaying of the technology’s risks.
Contact-Free Refueling by Laser
Although drone technology is advancing rapidly, the utility of flying devices is limited by battery life.
The need to keep drones light means limits on their power supply, which in turn caps their range and the duration of any tasks they’re applied to. One solution to the problem is to equip drones with photovoltaic cells and beam power to them with lasers mid-flight.
It’s not a new idea. As far back as 2018, DARPA was developing such a technology for its fixed-wing military drones. However, there are thermal challenges, as a sufficiently strong laser to charge the batteries would also melt the drone without an appropriate way to dissipate the heat.
Now, a Chinese team says they’ve figured out the trick to doing it, and can charge drones in flight with a reasonable 38.5% efficiency.
The idea has applications beyond the military, and beyond just drones. Boeing is reportedly working on repurposing high-powered laser weapons originally developed for the U.S. military as long-distance energy transfer devices for civilian use. Ironically, the original purpose of those lasers was to shoot down drones.
Image Credit: Lindsey G. via Wikimedia Commons (license)
