Shaping of the present-day deep biosphere at chicxulub by the impact catastrophe that ended the cretaceous
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Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
We report on the effect of the end-Cretaceous impact event on the present-day deep microbial biosphere at the impact site. IODP-ICDP Expedition 364 drilled into the peak ring of the Chicxulub crater, México, allowing us to investigate the microbial communities within this structure. Increased cell biomass was found in the impact suevite, which was deposited within the first few hours of the Cenozoic, demonstrating that the impact produced a new lithological horizon that caused a long-term improvement in deep subsurface colonization potential. In the biologically impoverished granitic rocks, we observed increased cell abundances at impact-induced geological interfaces, that can be attributed to the nutritionally diverse substrates and/or elevated fluid flow. 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing revealed taxonomically distinct microbial communities in each crater lithology. These observations show that the impact caused geological deformation that continues to shape the deep subsurface biosphere at Chicxulub in the present day.
Date Issued
2021-06-24
Date Acceptance
2021-05-10
Citation
Frontiers in Microbiology, 2021, 12, pp.1-16
ISSN
1664-302X
Publisher
Frontiers Media
Start Page
1
End Page
16
Journal / Book Title
Frontiers in Microbiology
Volume
12
Copyright Statement
© 2021 Cockell, Schaefer, Wuchter, Coolen, Grice, Schnieders, Morgan, Gulick, Wittmann, Lofi, Christeson, Kring, Whalen, Bralower, Osinski, Claeys, Kaskes, de Graaff, Déhais, Goderis, Hernandez Becerra, Nixon and IODP-ICDP Expedition 364 Scientists. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
License URL
Sponsor
Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)
Identifier
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2021.668240/full
Grant Number
NE/P005217/1
Subjects
0502 Environmental Science and Management
0503 Soil Sciences
0605 Microbiology
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
668240
Date Publish Online
2021-06-24