22. 3. 2016
Ice & Life - Living Cryosphere
Birgit Sattler Mag. Dr., Ao. Univ.-Prof.
The cryosphere is – by definition – the portion of the Earth where water exists in the solid phase as snow or ice. It collectively includes vast areas of sea ice, lake and river ice, glaciers, ice sheets and caps as well as the snow cover and frozen ground including permafrost. A novel aspect of this work is the inclusion of the atmosphere as a living space for microbial communities. Once thought to be barren of life, these icy environments are home to rich microbial communities which are capable of significantly altering the Earth’s carbon budget by contributing significantly to the annual availability of new organic carbon, which in turn supports higher forms of life. These ecosystems are highly sensitive to temperate rise due to resulting enhanced availability of liquid water which is the prerequisite for life.
Icy surfaces are also subject to atmospheric depositions such as manmade radionuclides deriving from Chernobyl and atomic bomb test. Here sources and accumulations rates are discussed in connection with applying microbial communities as biodosimeters.
Since the various compartments of the cryosphere are climate-relevant there is an urgent need to understand the biogeochemical processes before some start to vanish as it is the case in the Alps and in some polar regions.
PDF pozvánka na přednášku ke stažení.
Životopis ke stažení ZDE.