Polar glaciers may be home to previously undiscovered carbon cycle

Research in Antarctica's McMurdo Dry Valleys indicates that microbes are a source of organic material.

Microbes in streams flowing on the surface of glaciers in the Arctic and Antarctic may represent a previously underestimated source of organic material and be part of an as yet undiscovered "dynamic local carbon cycle," according to a new paper published by researchers supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF).

The cycle, they argue, could become a significant global source of carbon as temperatures rise worldwide and microbial activity increases.

An international team of researchers from the United States, Germany and Sweden published their results in the online journal Nature Geoscience.

Read more at National Science Foundation

Photo Credit: Christine Zenino from Chicago, US via Wikimedia Commons