Definition
The biosphere is defined either as “the place on Earth’s surface where life dwells” (Eduard Suess’ original definition, 1875, in The Origin of the Alps), meaning the zone on Earth where life naturally occurs, or in a more narrow sense as just the organisms themselves. Recent advances in microbiology have demonstrated that microorganisms live deep beneath the Earth’s terrestrial surface and that the total mass of microbial life may, in biomass, exceed all animal and plant life on the surface (Whitman et al., 1998). Microorganisms live at such extremes that the “thickness” of the biosphere extends from 5,400 m above sea level to at least 9,000 m below sea level.
Salt deposits are accumulations of solid materials and are usually derived from evaporation of seawater. There are >70 elements dissolved in extant seawater, but only 6 ions make up >99% of all the dissolved salts (wt% in brackets): Na+ (30.51), Cl− (55.08), SO4 2− (7.69), Mg2+ (3.67), Ca2+ (1.17), K+(1.10) (Hay et...
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Bibliography
Denner, E. B. M., McGenity, T. J., Busse, H. J., Wanner, G., Grant, W. D., and Stan-Lotter, H., 1994. Halococcus salifodinae sp.nov., an archaeal isolate from an Austrian salt mine. International Journal of Systematic Bacteriology, 44, 774–780.
Fendrihan, S., Legat, A., Gruber, C., Pfaffenhuemer, M., Weidler, G., Gerbl, F., and Stan-Lotter, H., 2006. Extremely halophilic archaea and the issue of long term microbial survival. Reviews in Environmental Science and Bio/technology, 5, 1569–1605.
Fish, S. A., Shepherd, T. J., McGenity, T. J., and Grant, W. D., 2002. Recovery of 16S ribosomal RNA gene fragments from ancient halite. Nature, 417, 432–436. Erratum in: 2002. Nature, 420, 202.
Gooding, J. L., 1992. Soil mineralogy and chemistry on Mars: possible clues from salts and clays in SNC meteorites. Icarus, 99, 28–41.
Grant, W. D., Gemmell, R. T. and McGenity, T. J., 1998. Halobacteria: the evidence for longevity. Extremophiles, 2, 279–287.
Gruber, C., Legat, A., Pfaffenhuemer, M., Radax, C., Weidler, G., Busse, H. J., and Stan-Lotter, H., 2004. Halobacterium noricense sp. nov., an archaeal isolate from a bore core of an alpine Permo-Triassic salt deposit, classification of Halobacterium sp. NRC-1 as a strain of Halobacterium salinarum and emended description of Halobacterium salinarum. Extremophiles, 8, 431–439.
Hay, W. W., Migdisov, A., Balukhovsky, A. N., Wold, C. N., Flögel, S., and Söding, E., 2006. Evaporites and the salinity of the ocean during the Phanerozoic: implications for climate, ocean circulation and life. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 240, 3–46.
Holser, W. T., and Kaplan, I. R., 1966. Isotope geochemistry of sedimentary sulfates. Chemical Geology, 1, 93–135.
Horita, J., Friedman, T. J., Lazar, B., and Holland, H. D., 1991. The composition of Permian seawater. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 55, 417–432.
Klaus, W., 1963. Sporen aus dem südalpinem Perm (Vergleichsstudie für die Gliederung nordalpiner Salzserien). Jahrbuch der Geologischen Bundesanstalt Wien, Band, 106, 229–361.
Klaus, W., 1974. Neue Beiträge zur Datierung von Evaporiten des Oberperm. Carinthia II, 164, Jahrgang 84: 79–85.
Larsen, H., 1981. The family Halobacteriaceae. In Starr, M. P., Stolp, H., Trüper, H. G., Balows A., and Schlegel H. G. (eds.). The Prokaryotes. A Handbook on Habitat, Isolation and Identification of Bacteria. Berlin: Springer, vol. I, pp. 985–994.
McGenity, T. J., Gemmell, R. T., Grant, W. D., and Stan-Lotter, H., 2000. Origins of halophilic microorganisms in ancient salt deposits (MiniReview). Environmental Microbiology, 2, 243–250.
Mormile, M. R., Biesen, M. A., Gutierrez, M. C., Ventosa, A., Pavlovich, J. B., Onstott, T. C., and Fredrickson, J. K., 2003. Isolation of Halobacterium salinarum retrieved directly from halite brine inclusions. Environmental Microbiology, 5, 1094–1102.
Norton, C. F., McGenity, T. J., and Grant, W. D., 1993. Archaeal halophiles (halobacteria) from two British salt mines. Journal of General Microbiology, 139, 1077–1081.
Osterloo, M. M., Hamilton, V. E., Bandfield, J. L., Glotch, T. D., Baldridge, A. M., Christensen, P. R., Tornabene, L. L., and Anderson, F. S., 2008. Chloride-bearing materials in the southern highlands of Mars. Science, 319, 1651–1654.
Radax, C., Gruber, C., and Stan-Lotter, H., 2001. Novel haloarchaeal 16S rRNA gene sequences from Alpine Permo-Triassic rock salt. Extremophiles, 5, 221–228.
Stan-Lotter, H., McGenity, T. J., Legat, A., Denner, E. B. M., Glaser, K., Stetter, K. O., and Wanner, G., 1999. Very similar strains of Halococcus salifodinae are found in geographically separated Permo-Triassic salt deposits. Microbiology, 145, 3565–3574.
Stan-Lotter, H., Radax, C., Gruber, C., McGenity, T. J., Legat, A., Wanner, G., and Denner, E. B. M., 2000. The distribution of viable microorganisms in Permo-Triassic rock salt. In Geertman, R. M. (ed.), SALT 2000. 8th World Salt Symposium, Amsterdam: Elsevier Science BV, vol. 2, pp. 921–926.
Stan-Lotter, H., Pfaffenhuemer, M., Legat, A., Busse, H. J., Radax, C., and Gruber, C., 2002. Halococcus dombrowskii sp. nov., an archaeal isolate from a Permo-Triassic alpine salt deposit. International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology, 52, 1807–1814.
Stan-Lotter, H., Radax, C., McGenity, T. J., Legat, A., Pfaffenhuemer, M., Wieland, H., Gruber, C., and Denner, E. B. M., 2004. From intraterrestrials to extraterrestrials – viable haloarchaea in ancient salt deposits. In Ventosa A. (ed.), Halophilic Microorganisms. Berlin: Springer, pp. 89–102.
Treiman, A. H., Gleason, J. D., and Bogard, D. D., 2000. The SNC meteorites are from Mars. Planetary and Space Science, 48, 1213–1230.
Vreeland, R. H., Piselli, A. F., Mc-Donnough, S., and Meyers, S. S., 1998. Distribution and diversity of halophilic bacteria in a subsurface salt formation. Extremophiles, 2, 321–331.
Vreeland, R. H., Straight, S., Krammes, J., Dougherty, K., Rosenzweig, W. D., and Kamekura, M., 2002. Halosimplex carlsbadense gen. nov., sp. nov., a unique halophilic archaeon, with three 16S rRNA genes, that grows only in defined medium with glycerol and acetate or pyruvate. Extremophiles, 6, 445–452.
Whitby, J., Burgess, R., Turner, G., Gilmour, J. and Bridges, J., 2000. Extinct 129I halite from a primitive meteorite: evidence for evaporite formation in the early solar system. Science, 288, 1819–1821.
Whitman, W. B., Coleman, D. C., and Wiebe, W. J., 1998. Prokaryotes: the unseen majority. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 95, 6578–6583.
Zharkov, M. A., 1981. History of Paleozoic Salt Accumulation. Berlin: Springer.
Zolensky, M. E., Bodnar, R. J., Gibson, E. K., Nyquist, L. E., Reese, Y., Shih, C. Y., and Wiesman, H., 1999. Asteroidal water within fluid inclusion-bearing halite in an H5 chondrite, Monahans (1998). Science, 285, 1377–1379.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2011 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.
About this entry
Cite this entry
Stan-Lotter, H., Fendrihan, S. (2011). Deep Biosphere of Salt Deposits . In: Reitner, J., Thiel, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Geobiology. Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-9212-1_67
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-9212-1_67
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-1-4020-9211-4
Online ISBN: 978-1-4020-9212-1
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceReference Module Physical and Materials ScienceReference Module Earth and Environmental Sciences