Abstract
Deep biosphere represents an unexplored realm of planetary life residing underneath the continental and oceanic crusts that constitutes majorly of prokaryotic life forms bacteria and archaea. Microbial communities which reside within various deep subsurface environments form a significant but largely unknown portion of the Earth’s biosphere. While the shallow aquifer and sedimentary rock microbiome might get access to the nutrient pool available above ground, deep subterranean habitats hosted by crystalline rocks are severely constrained by the availability of photosynthetically derived nutrients. Deep subsurface microbiome underneath the continental crusts not only showed variations based on their geographic locations but also with respect to the abundance of various microbial populations and their metabolic properties. It is estimated that the deep biosphere microorganisms represent the largest pool of carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorous and constitute a critical component of biogeochemical engine of our planet. The aphotic deep dark microbial realm that has evolved possibly billions of years ago has developed unique metabolic repertoire for their survival. The deep biosphere microbiome is considered to be a portion of planetary life with extraordinary life-supporting system that works beyond our notion about biological and physical constraints. Advancement of techniques in microbial ecology has enabled us to decipher deep subsurface microbiome which resides up to several kilometers below the surface using both cultivation-dependent and cultivation-independent techniques. In this chapter, we have summarized our understanding of the deep biosphere microbiome within terrestrial subsurface. Habitability of life within the deep subsurface has been discussed considering the major metabolic routes deployed by the microorganisms. Cultivation-dependent and cultivation-independent studies and their requirement and outcome from various exploratory researches have been documented. Techniques used for sampling the subsurface microbiome are discussed, highlighting the role of possible contamination during drilling and subsequent postcore extraction processes. Lastly, applications of deep subsurface microbiome research in achieving better sustainability and biotechnological innovations are discussed.
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Sar, P., Dutta, A., Bose, H., Mandal, S., Kazy, S.K. (2019). Deep Biosphere: Microbiome of the Deep Terrestrial Subsurface. In: Satyanarayana, T., Johri, B., Das, S. (eds) Microbial Diversity in Ecosystem Sustainability and Biotechnological Applications. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-8315-1_8
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