Photo from C. La Farge. A paper by scientists at the University of Alberta has demonstrated that there just might be something to this whole cryogenics craze.
La Farge et al. report the growth of little ice age bryophyte (the taxonomic group including mosses, lichens, and liverworts) samples that were recovered from within the Teardrop glacier on Ellesmere Island. Simply put, the scientists were able to grow mosses that had been frozen in ice for ~400 years! They didn't do anything special, they just collected the 'dead' moss, mixed it up in soil, and watered it.
The implications of this study - beyond being able to grow something that hasn't grown for 4 centuries - is that glaciers serve as an important source of life (bryophytes, bacteria, etc.) as they advance and retreat. It implies that following a significant ice age, the deposit of mosses onto the soil beneath a retreating glacier allowed for the rapid recolonization of plants on the landscape. Mosses and lichens are a great way to kickstart ecosystems, because they break down rocks and soils and thus make nutrients available. This is just a little hint at how life begins over again after a big freeze....
La Farge et al. 2013. Regeneration of Little Ice Age bryophytes emerging from a polar glacier with implications of totipotency in extreme environments. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 24: 9839–9844.
La Farge et al. report the growth of little ice age bryophyte (the taxonomic group including mosses, lichens, and liverworts) samples that were recovered from within the Teardrop glacier on Ellesmere Island. Simply put, the scientists were able to grow mosses that had been frozen in ice for ~400 years! They didn't do anything special, they just collected the 'dead' moss, mixed it up in soil, and watered it.
The implications of this study - beyond being able to grow something that hasn't grown for 4 centuries - is that glaciers serve as an important source of life (bryophytes, bacteria, etc.) as they advance and retreat. It implies that following a significant ice age, the deposit of mosses onto the soil beneath a retreating glacier allowed for the rapid recolonization of plants on the landscape. Mosses and lichens are a great way to kickstart ecosystems, because they break down rocks and soils and thus make nutrients available. This is just a little hint at how life begins over again after a big freeze....
La Farge et al. 2013. Regeneration of Little Ice Age bryophytes emerging from a polar glacier with implications of totipotency in extreme environments. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 24: 9839–9844.
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