The next generation of extremophiles?

We humans are pretty picky. We complain when our conditions get too hot, too cold, too acidic, too salty...the list of environments we don't like goes on and on. But microbes are different, able to eke out a living just about anywhere: acid mine drainage, deep sea hydrothermal vents, salt lakes, boiling deserts, etc. Scientists have now identified yet another "extreme" environment - an ice-covered alkaline lake in Antarctica ("extreme" is a subjective word meant to signify something extreme by human standards...the microbes are perfectly happy there and would very well find a Florida beach house "extreme").

Most extremophiles have learned to adapt to one particularly challenging condition. Some deal well with heat, others with salt, others with radiation. But microbes in this lake, Lake Untersee, would have to deal both with extremely cold temperatures and very high pH levels. Acidophilic ("acid-loving") microbes have been relatively well characterized around mine drainage sites or naturally acidic places like the Rio Tinto in Spain, but alkaline-adapted organisms are rare. Untersee is more alkaline than Clorox bleach! To combine that with cold temperature adaptations would be pretty extreme indeed.

Thus far in our exploration of the Earth's biosphere, we've found life just about everywhere we've found water. I would be amazed, but not particularly surprised, if Lake Untersee was stocked with a rich microbial community.


Above: the distribution of known sub-glacial lakes in Antarctica.