Digital Commons Network^™

Carbon Sources To Microbes And Cryoconite On Alaskan Alpine Glacier Surfaces, Drake Mccrimmon

Theses and Dissertations

Cryoconite are depressions in the ice surface filled with diverse microorganisms and dark debris, which are reducing albedo and increasing glacier melt. In order to understand cryoconite carbon composition and carbon sources to microorganisms living on glacier surfaces, bulk organic carbon and microbial lipids from supraglacial cryoconite sediment within the ablation zones of Spencer, Matanuska, and Mendenhall glaciers in southern Alaska have been coupled with radiocarbon (14C) analyses. The microbial lipids analyzed in these studies, phospholipid fatty acids (PLFA), are components of microbial membranes, quickly degrade after cell death, and give a snapshot of the viable microbial community. PLFA structure …