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The GeoBiosphere

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Continental Scientific Drilling

Abstract

Studies during the past two decades have demonstrated that the biosphere extends to great depths beneath the surface of the Earth’s continents. This deep biosphere contains diverse and active microbial communities whose biomass may even exceed that of surface organisms. The distribution of these subsurface microbes is controlled by multiple interacting factors, e.g., porosity of sediments and rocks, temperature, pressure, energy and nutrient availability, and rates of geohydrologic processes. Progress in understanding life in the subsurface has been limited by available technology but also by funding. Knowledge of the deep biosphere is based on only a few boreholes and many fundamental research questions remain unanswered. While the International Continental Scientific Drilling Program (ICDP) has included geobiological components to some recent projects, there is an opportunity for even greater scientific contributions. We recommend that the ICDP follow the example of the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP), which now includes a biological component to every sampling mission and furthermore makes biological inquiry the central focus of several of its drilling campaigns. By addressing major questions in the geobiology of the subsurface, we anticipate that the ICDP will achieve even greater prominence during its second decade and thus increase the potential for scientific contributions in all of the disciplines within subsurface science.

GeoBiosphere Group is: Hans Amann (Maritime Technology Group, Technical University of Berlin, Germany), Stephen G. Franks (Saudi Aramco, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia), Jens Kallmeyer (NASA Astrobiology Institute, University of Rhode Island, USA), Kai Mangelsdorf (GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam, Germany), R. John Parkes (School of Earth, Ocean and Planetary Sciences, Cardiff University, UK), Dirk Wagner (Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research Potsdam, Germany), Heinz Wilkes (GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam, Germany), Klaus-G. Zink (GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam, Germany)

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam Telegrafenberg, D-14473, Potsdam, Germany

    Brian Horsfield

  2. New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, Socorro, NM, 87801, USA

    Thomas L. Kieft

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  1. Telegrafenberg, GFZ Potsdam, 14473, Potsdam, Germany

    Ulrich Harms

  2. Department of Geological Sciences, University of Vienna, Althanstraße 14, 1090, Vienna, Austria

    Christian Koeberl

  3. Department of Geophysics, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 94305-2215, USA

    Mark D. Zoback

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Horsfield, B., Kieft, T.L., GeoBiosphere Group. (2007). The GeoBiosphere. In: Harms, U., Koeberl, C., Zoback, M.D. (eds) Continental Scientific Drilling. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-68778-8_4

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