Deep Life in Deep Time

The deep biosphere is Earth’s largest microbial habitat and hosts ancient evolutionary lineages.

This project aims to unravel the unexplored history of prokaryotic and eukaryotic microbial colonization and habitation of the deep biosphere, which is of high relevance in an origin of life and evolution perspective.

Rock fractures and veins representing ancient subsurface environments will be studied using a unique set of deep drillcores from the oldest rocks on Earth; continental Precambrian cratons of South Africa, Australia, Canada and Greenland, and meteorite impact structures therein.

A novel multidisciplinary microanalytical protocol that combines state-of-the-art detection of isotopic, molecular, and morphological biosignatures with in situ geochronology and thermochronology will be applied to putative fossilized microbial mats and fracture coatings. The project is organized as a 4-year PhD project, guided by a multidisciplinary team of leading experts.

Several outstanding scientific questions regarding the deep ancient biosphere will be addressed, including: When and where Earth’s subsurface was colonized? Did meteorite impacts aid colonization? What metabolisms/ecological conditions dominated and how did they evolve and interact with the surface biosphere?

Where can the oldest records of microbial evolution be found?

The resultant data will provide a new level of understanding of the records of colonization and evolution of microbial life in the deep biosphere.