Lost world of extremophiles hides beneath Great Lakes


We normally think of freshwater lakes and salty oceans as two distinct worlds. Not so in the North American Great Lakes. Just 20 metres beneath the surface of some of the largest freshwater reservoirs on Earth are deep brine-filled pockets.
Now, researchers are discovering that these unusual sinkholes are home to extraordinary communities of microscopic bacteria. The organisms are not new to science, but preliminary genetic analysis is showing that they are relatives of bacteria that live in the subglacial lakes of Antarctica. Others are functionally similar to the extremophile bacteria living on the black smokers of the deep ocean.

Full story on NewScientist

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