Global ecosystem typology

Alternative site for the Global ecosystem typology with additional information for ecosystem profiles and indicative maps.

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F2.10 Subglacial lakes

Biome: F2. Lakes biome

Contributors:
(texts)

These hidden lakes exist beneath permanent ice sheets, sometimes tens to thousands of metres below, mostly in Antarctica and Greenland. Bacteria and other microbes are the only forms of life, but there is a surprising diversity of them. Productivity is very low in the dark and freezing conditions, with species relying on metabolism of chemicals such as methane, iron and sulphur to support the simple foodweb.

Key Features

Lakes beneath permanent ice sheets with a truncated microbial food web, including chemoautotrophic and heterotrophic of bacteria and archaea.

Overview of distribution

Antarctica, Greenland, Iceland and Canada.

Profile versions

Main references

Selected references for this functional group:

  • Bowling JS, Livingstone SJ, Sole AJ, Chu W (2019) Distribution and dynamics of Greenland subglacial Lakes Nature Communications 10:2810 DOI:10.1038/s41467-019-10821-w

  • Mikucki JA et al. (2016) Subglacial Lake Whillans microbial biogeochemistry: a synthesis of current knowledge Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A 374: 20140290

  • Siegert MJ, Ellis-Evans JC, Tranter M, Mayer C, Petit JR, Salamatink A, Priscu JC (2001) Physical, chemical and biological processes in Lake Vostok and other Antarctic subglacial lakes Nature 414: 603-609 DOI:10.1038/414603a

Diagrammatic assembly model

Diagrammatic assembly model of F2.10 Subglacial lakes. See general notes on diagrams. Open image full size.

Maps

Maps are indicative of global distribution patterns are not intended to represent fine-scale patterns. The maps show areas of the world containing major (coloured red) or minor occurrences (coloured yellow) of each ecosystem functional group. See general notes on maps.

There are 2 alternative versions of the indicative map for this functional group, please compare description and sources below.

F2.10.IM.mix_v1.0

Datasets

  • Subglacial-lake-list
  • Subglacial-lake-list
  • Subglacial-lake-list
  • Subglacial-lake-list
  • EarthEnv-LandCover-v1.0
  • Resolve-Ecoregions-2017

Map references

  • Wright, A., & Siegert, M. (2012) A fourth inventory of Antarctic subglacial lakes Antarctic Science 24(6), 659-664 DOI:10.1017/S095410201200048X

  • Livingstone, S., Utting, D., Ruffell, A. et al. (2016) Discovery of relict subglacial lakes and their geometry and mechanism of drainage Nat Commun 7, ncomms11767 DOI:10.1038/ncomms11767

  • Bowling JS, Livingstone SJ, Sole AJ, Chu W (2019) Distribution and dynamics of Greenland subglacial Lakes Nature Communications 10:2810 DOI:10.1038/s41467-019-10821-w

  • Thór Marteinsson, V., Rúnarsson, Á., Stefánsson, A. et al. (2013) Microbial communities in the subglacial waters of the Vatnajökull ice cap, Iceland ISME J 7, 427–437 DOI:10.1038/ismej.2012.97

  • Tuanmu, M.-N. and W. Jetz (2014) A global 1-km consensus land-cover product for biodiversity and ecosystem modeling Global Ecology and Biogeography 23(9):1031–1045 DOI:10.1111/geb.12182

  • Dinerstein E, Olson D, Joshi A, Vynne C, Burgess ND, Wikramanayake E, Hahn N, Palminteri S, Hedao P, Noss R, Hansen M, Locke H, Ellis EE, Jones B, Barber CV, Hayes R, Kormos C, Martin V, Crist E, Sechrest W, Price L, Baillie JEM, Weeden D, Suckling K, Davis C, Sizer N, Moore R, Thau D, Birch T, Potapov P, Turubanova S, Tyukavina A, de Souza N, Pintea L, Brito JC, Llewellyn Barnekow Lillesø JP, van Breugel P, Graudal L, Voge M, Al-Shammari KF, Saleem M (2017) An Ecoregion-Based Approach to Protecting Half the Terrestrial Realm, BioScience 67: 534–545. DOI:10.1093/biosci/bix014. Data-set available on-line

F2.10.web.mix_v2.0

Major occurrences of subglacial lakes were mapped as point records from Wright and Siegert (2012), Bowler et al. (2019), Marteinsson et al. (2013) and Livingstone et al. (2016). Unmapped lakes are likely to occur within areas with permanent snow and ice cover and were mapped as minor occurrences based on permanent snow and ice from Dinerstein et al. (2017) and Tuanmu et al. (2014). Open image full size.

Datasets

  • Subglacial-lake-list
  • Subglacial-lake-list
  • Subglacial-lake-list
  • EarthEnv-LandCover-v1.0
  • Subglacial-lake-list
  • Resolve-Ecoregions-2017

Map references

  • Livingstone, S., Utting, D., Ruffell, A. et al. (2016) Discovery of relict subglacial lakes and their geometry and mechanism of drainage Nat Commun 7, ncomms11767 DOI:10.1038/ncomms11767

  • Wright, A., & Siegert, M. (2012) A fourth inventory of Antarctic subglacial lakes Antarctic Science 24(6), 659-664 DOI:10.1017/S095410201200048X

  • Thór Marteinsson, V., Rúnarsson, Á., Stefánsson, A. et al. (2013) Microbial communities in the subglacial waters of the Vatnajökull ice cap, Iceland ISME J 7, 427–437 DOI:10.1038/ismej.2012.97

  • Tuanmu, M.-N. and W. Jetz (2014) A global 1-km consensus land-cover product for biodiversity and ecosystem modeling Global Ecology and Biogeography 23(9):1031–1045 DOI:10.1111/geb.12182

  • Bowling JS, Livingstone SJ, Sole AJ, Chu W (2019) Distribution and dynamics of Greenland subglacial Lakes Nature Communications 10:2810 DOI:10.1038/s41467-019-10821-w

  • Dinerstein E, Olson D, Joshi A, Vynne C, Burgess ND, Wikramanayake E, Hahn N, Palminteri S, Hedao P, Noss R, Hansen M, Locke H, Ellis EE, Jones B, Barber CV, Hayes R, Kormos C, Martin V, Crist E, Sechrest W, Price L, Baillie JEM, Weeden D, Suckling K, Davis C, Sizer N, Moore R, Thau D, Birch T, Potapov P, Turubanova S, Tyukavina A, de Souza N, Pintea L, Brito JC, Llewellyn Barnekow Lillesø JP, van Breugel P, Graudal L, Voge M, Al-Shammari KF, Saleem M (2017) An Ecoregion-Based Approach to Protecting Half the Terrestrial Realm, BioScience 67: 534–545. DOI:10.1093/biosci/bix014. Data-set available on-line

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