A quick post on an excellent review published last week by Antje Boetius and co-authors (including Jody Deming, my PhD advisor) in Nature Reviews Microbiology, titled Microbial ecology of the cryosphere: sea ice and glacial habitats. The review, focused on viral, bacterial, and archael microbes, provides an excellent overview of the major habitats within the cryosphere (broadly glacial ice, sea ice, and snow), the challenges and opportunities for microbial life, and the observed distribution of taxa and genes (to the extent that we know it). Like most Nature Reviews it is written for a broad audience and assumes no deep knowledge of microbial ecology or the cryosphere.
Taken from Boetius et al., 2015. Top: a schematic of different elements of the cryosphere, b: warm, summertime sea ice, c: the supraglacial environment, featuring a meltriver, d: cold winter sea ice, e: the subglacial environment, featuring the Blood Falls outflow from Taylor Glacier.
Plenty of reviews have been written on microbial life at low temperature, what makes this one stand out to me is the ecological focus. Although discussions of biogeography (i.e. what taxa are where) and metabolism are woven throughout the review, the emphasis is on habitats, including newly recognized habitats like frost flowers and saline snow. Check it out!
