Skip to main content
UNSW Home Newsroom
  • Subscribe
  • Find an Expert
  • Contact Us
  • Publications
  • For Staff
  • Home
  • All News
  • Science & Tech
  • Health
  • Business & Law
  • Social Affairs
  • Art, Architecture & Design
  • Students
  • General
  • Opinion

Secrets of Antarctic lake’s microbes revealed

Twitter Facebook LinkedIn
11 Aug 2020
Isabelle Dubach
Expand Photo

Aerial view of Ace Lake while it’s frozen. The lake is 24 metres deep. Photo: Rick Cavicchioli

Aerial view of Ace Lake while it’s frozen. The lake is 24 metres deep. Photo: Rick Cavicchioli

Expand Photo

The team’s first expedition took place in summer 2006. Photo: Rick Cavicchioli

The team’s first expedition took place in summer 2006. Photo: Rick Cavicchioli

Expand Photo

The sampling site pictured here was captured on the team’s third and biggest expedition, which started in 2013. Photo: Rick Cavicchioli

The sampling site pictured here was captured on the team’s third and biggest expedition, which started in 2013. Photo: Rick Cavicchioli

Expand Photo

During this expedition, Alyce Hancock and Sarah Payne spent 18 months collecting microbial samples in Antarctica. Photo: Rick Cavicchioli

During this expedition, Alyce Hancock and Sarah Payne spent 18 months collecting microbial samples in Antarctica. Photo: Rick Cavicchioli

Expand Photo

Another shot of the team in 2013 – the sampling site can be seen in the background. Photo: Rick Cavicchioli

Another shot of the team in 2013 – the sampling site can be seen in the background. Photo: Rick Cavicchioli

Expand Photo

The site pictured in winter. Photo: Rob Isaac

The site pictured in winter. Photo: Rob Isaac

Expand Photo

The team’s sampling gear in one of the mobile work shelters. Photo: Rick Cavicchioli

The team’s sampling gear in one of the mobile work shelters. Photo: Rick Cavicchioli

Expand Photo

The team deploying the camera into Ace Lake. Photo: Rick Cavicchioli

The team deploying the camera into Ace Lake. Photo: Rick Cavicchioli

Expand Photo

Looking down: a video screen capture of what you see in the lake. Photo: Rick Cavicchioli

Looking down: a video screen capture of what you see in the lake. Photo: Rick Cavicchioli

Expand Photo

Green sulfur bacteria – one of the two most abundant types of microbes the team found in Ace Lake. Photo: Rick Cavicchioli

Green sulfur bacteria – one of the two most abundant types of microbes the team found in Ace Lake. Photo: Rick Cavicchioli

Expand Photo

Alyce Hancock and Sarah Payne with the team’s first samples. Photo: Rick Cavicchioli

Alyce Hancock and Sarah Payne with the team’s first samples. Photo: Rick Cavicchioli

Expand Photo

Microbial mass collected at Ace Lake captured on a filter. Photo: Rick Cavicchioli

Microbial mass collected at Ace Lake captured on a filter. Photo: Rick Cavicchioli

Expand Photo

Microbes are only one of many experiences on these expeditions: Alyce Hancock and Sarah Payne observing the local penguins. Photo: Rick Cavicchioli

Microbes are only one of many experiences on these expeditions: Alyce Hancock and Sarah Payne observing the local penguins. Photo: Rick Cavicchioli

Expand Photo

The curious Adelie penguins up close. Photo: Rick Cavicchioli

The curious Adelie penguins up close. Photo: Rick Cavicchioli

Expand Photo

After the three expeditions, the researchers extracted DNA from the samples and sequenced it all. Pratibha Panwar then spent three years analysing 120 metagenomes – 40 million protein-coding genes. The result of the international collaboration is now published in the journal Microbiome.

After the three expeditions, the researchers extracted DNA from the samples and sequenced it all. Pratibha Panwar then spent three years analysing 120 metagenomes – 40 million protein-coding genes. The result of the international collaboration is now published in the journal Microbiome.

Previous Slide Next Slide
Previous Slide Next Slide

UNSW Science Professor Rick Cavicchioli is an expert in microbes and why they are so important – just last year, he led an urgent call for the world to stop ignoring this ‘unseen majority’ in Earth’s biodiversity and ecosystem when addressing climate change. 

In their widely covered and discussed scientists’ warning, Prof Cavicchioli and researchers around the world raised awareness both for how microbes can influence climate change and how they will be impacted by it – calling for including microbes in climate change research, increasing the use of research involving innovative technologies, and improving education in classrooms.

Now, Prof Cavicchioli has published another important piece on microbes – this time, a research paper that has been more than a decade in the making: after three Antarctic missions, including one that ran for 18 months, plus three years of bioinformatics analysis, the scientists can now reveal the secrets of Ace Lake’s microbes. 

In the paper, Prof Cavicchioli and team show how these microbes have adapted to the polar light cycle. The researchers found that two types of microbes – green sulfur bacteria (GSB) and cyanobacteria – were most abundant in the lake, and that they were highly influenced by light availability. The GSB decreased in numbers in winter and bounced back to higher levels in spring. 

The researchers believe that the GSB in the lake have evolved specifically to life in Antarctica. Because they are specialised, the research team predicts that the same GSB will be found in other Antarctic aquatic systems, and they are currently doing research now to find out if it is true. One thing that concerns the scientists is the threat from introduced (invasive) viruses that could destroy the GSB, thereby perturbing the whole lake ecosystem.

So, come along on the team’s journey – from their first expedition in 2006 all the way to the publication of their research.

Twitter Facebook LinkedIn

Recent Galleries

Native marsupial populations on the rise in Sturt National Park

View gallery

IWD 2022: UNSW Business School celebrates its alumnae

View gallery

Next generation of creative practitioners exhibit at the ANNUAL

View gallery

Guruwaal: local Aboriginal artwork centres revitalised Alumni Park

View gallery

Welcome to Country and Smoking Ceremony brings in the new term

View gallery
  • Academic Freedom
  • Privacy
  • Copyright
  • Accessibility
 

Media Office, UNSW Sydney NSW 2052 Australia
Telephone. +61 2 9385 2864, Email. media@unsw.edu.au
Authorised by the Vice-President, External Engagement, UNSW Sydney
Provider Code: 00098G ABN: 57 195 873 179