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As man-made climate emissions warm the planet, the ice of the capsules and permafrost melts, revealing an ancient life that has remained frozen for centuries. Recently, researchers have found a piece of moss that could even be alive.
You would not think too much about Aulacomnium turgidum if you have seen it – even if it is unlikely that you will see it. The species has small leaves and inhabits northern Europe, North America and sometimes atop a mountain. During what is called the Little Ice Age, a period from 1600 to 1850, Europe and North America have been subjected to harsher winters than usual . The lakes froze and the glaciers spread into the Arctic, trapping all the unfortunate vegetation that they went through. A. turgidum one of the species trapped in glaciers on Ellesmere Island in Canada.
You would think that nothing could survive the freezing of centuries. Of course, some microorganisms and maybe even nematodes (roundworms), but not like a plant, are not they?
"You would not think that everything that would be buried for hundreds of years would be viable," said Catherine La Farge, Foam Researcher at the University of Alberta, who explored the retreating glaciers. to find the life they have left.
But then, she noticed something unexpected about some foam samples: they were green. Usually, the thawed biological material is black, so it is quite unusual to be green. La Farge brought the samples back to a laboratory and did what any responsible scientist would do: plant them.
In a special soil, rich in nutrients, the mosses were bathed in light and heat. It was not long before some of the samples grew back, replenishing new shoots and leaves. It was breathtaking, says La Farge.
But Peter Convey, ecologist of the British Antarctic Survey, has gone one step further: he has resuscitated frozen moss for more than 1500 years. While this is an absolutely stunning record of biological resilience, it is not totally surprising that mosses can survive this way.
Mosses are stronger than most plants and can survive when temperatures drop. They do this by drying – removing as much water as possible to prevent the formation of ice crystals, which can be devastating to the cells. They can also divide and differentiate into all the necessary tissues, which means that as long as a part of it survives and that it has access to energy and nutrients, the moss can make a big comeback.
Nematodes isolated from permafrost deposits returned to life a few weeks after thawing. Image credits: Shatilovich et al.
Even that is nothing compared to what the nematodes were able to do: they bounced back after being frozen for 42,000 years, setting a new cryogenic survival record. A few weeks after the thaw began, the worms moved and ate.
But this story is not limited to resilience: it's also a warning. In addition to mosses and nematodes, there are also countless bacteria trapped in permafrost, many of which can cause serious illness.
"Permafrost is a very good preservative of microbes and viruses, because it is cold, there is no oxygen and it is dark," says biologist Jean-Michel evolution Claverie of the University of Aix-Marseille at the BBC. "Pathogenic viruses that can infect humans or animals could be preserved in old layers of permafrost, including some that have caused global epidemics in the past."
As the Earth warms more and more, permafromes will also melt more and more. In the 20th century alone, anthrax killed more than a million reindeer, and it is thought that anthrax has emerged from melting permafrost. With the many organisms currently frozen under the ice, it's hard to say exactly what potential infections might be hiding below the surface.
Our emissions trigger a global chain reaction and the consequences are terrible and difficult to predict. So, aside from the remarkable robustness of some creatures, there is also a warning story. There are who knows-how-many creatures buried in the ice. In a sense, it's like a graveyard – and part of that graveyard is waking up.
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