Shaping of the Present-Day Deep Biosphere at Chicxulub by the Impact Catastrophe That Ended the Cretaceous
We report on the effect of the end-Cretaceous impact event on the present-day deep microbial biosphere at the impact site. IODP-ICDP Expedition 364 drilled into the peak ring of the Chicxulub crater, México, allowing us to investigate the microbial communities within this structure. Increased cell b...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Journal Article |
| Language: | English |
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FRONTIERS MEDIA SA
2021
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DP180100982 http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/90123 |
| _version_ | 1848765331432013824 |
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| author | Cockell, C.S. Schaefer, Bettina Wuchter, Cornelia Coolen, Marco Grice, Kliti Schnieders, L. Morgan, J.V. Gulick, S.P.S. Wittmann, A. Lofi, J. Christeson, G.L. Kring, D.A. Whalen, M.T. Bralower, T.J. Osinski, G.R. Claeys, P. Kaskes, P. de Graaff, S.J. Déhais, T. Goderis, S. Hernandez Becerra, N. Nixon, S. |
| author_facet | Cockell, C.S. Schaefer, Bettina Wuchter, Cornelia Coolen, Marco Grice, Kliti Schnieders, L. Morgan, J.V. Gulick, S.P.S. Wittmann, A. Lofi, J. Christeson, G.L. Kring, D.A. Whalen, M.T. Bralower, T.J. Osinski, G.R. Claeys, P. Kaskes, P. de Graaff, S.J. Déhais, T. Goderis, S. Hernandez Becerra, N. Nixon, S. |
| author_sort | Cockell, C.S. |
| building | Curtin Institutional Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | We report on the effect of the end-Cretaceous impact event on the present-day deep microbial biosphere at the impact site. IODP-ICDP Expedition 364 drilled into the peak ring of the Chicxulub crater, México, allowing us to investigate the microbial communities within this structure. Increased cell biomass was found in the impact suevite, which was deposited within the first few hours of the Cenozoic, demonstrating that the impact produced a new lithological horizon that caused a long-term improvement in deep subsurface colonization potential. In the biologically impoverished granitic rocks, we observed increased cell abundances at impact-induced geological interfaces, that can be attributed to the nutritionally diverse substrates and/or elevated fluid flow. 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing revealed taxonomically distinct microbial communities in each crater lithology. These observations show that the impact caused geological deformation that continues to shape the deep subsurface biosphere at Chicxulub in the present day. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T11:33:33Z |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | curtin-20.500.11937-90123 |
| institution | Curtin University Malaysia |
| institution_category | Local University |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T11:33:33Z |
| publishDate | 2021 |
| publisher | FRONTIERS MEDIA SA |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | curtin-20.500.11937-901232023-02-10T08:14:24Z Shaping of the Present-Day Deep Biosphere at Chicxulub by the Impact Catastrophe That Ended the Cretaceous Cockell, C.S. Schaefer, Bettina Wuchter, Cornelia Coolen, Marco Grice, Kliti Schnieders, L. Morgan, J.V. Gulick, S.P.S. Wittmann, A. Lofi, J. Christeson, G.L. Kring, D.A. Whalen, M.T. Bralower, T.J. Osinski, G.R. Claeys, P. Kaskes, P. de Graaff, S.J. Déhais, T. Goderis, S. Hernandez Becerra, N. Nixon, S. Science & Technology Life Sciences & Biomedicine Microbiology chicxulub impact crater deep biosphere drilling craters MICROBIAL COMMUNITIES CRYSTALLINE ROCKS GEN-NOV LIFE TERRESTRIAL GROUNDWATER EXTINCTION EXTRACTION DIVERSITY HABITAT We report on the effect of the end-Cretaceous impact event on the present-day deep microbial biosphere at the impact site. IODP-ICDP Expedition 364 drilled into the peak ring of the Chicxulub crater, México, allowing us to investigate the microbial communities within this structure. Increased cell biomass was found in the impact suevite, which was deposited within the first few hours of the Cenozoic, demonstrating that the impact produced a new lithological horizon that caused a long-term improvement in deep subsurface colonization potential. In the biologically impoverished granitic rocks, we observed increased cell abundances at impact-induced geological interfaces, that can be attributed to the nutritionally diverse substrates and/or elevated fluid flow. 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing revealed taxonomically distinct microbial communities in each crater lithology. These observations show that the impact caused geological deformation that continues to shape the deep subsurface biosphere at Chicxulub in the present day. 2021 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/90123 10.3389/fmicb.2021.668240 English http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DP180100982 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ FRONTIERS MEDIA SA fulltext |
| spellingShingle | Science & Technology Life Sciences & Biomedicine Microbiology chicxulub impact crater deep biosphere drilling craters MICROBIAL COMMUNITIES CRYSTALLINE ROCKS GEN-NOV LIFE TERRESTRIAL GROUNDWATER EXTINCTION EXTRACTION DIVERSITY HABITAT Cockell, C.S. Schaefer, Bettina Wuchter, Cornelia Coolen, Marco Grice, Kliti Schnieders, L. Morgan, J.V. Gulick, S.P.S. Wittmann, A. Lofi, J. Christeson, G.L. Kring, D.A. Whalen, M.T. Bralower, T.J. Osinski, G.R. Claeys, P. Kaskes, P. de Graaff, S.J. Déhais, T. Goderis, S. Hernandez Becerra, N. Nixon, S. Shaping of the Present-Day Deep Biosphere at Chicxulub by the Impact Catastrophe That Ended the Cretaceous |
| title | Shaping of the Present-Day Deep Biosphere at Chicxulub by the Impact Catastrophe That Ended the Cretaceous |
| title_full | Shaping of the Present-Day Deep Biosphere at Chicxulub by the Impact Catastrophe That Ended the Cretaceous |
| title_fullStr | Shaping of the Present-Day Deep Biosphere at Chicxulub by the Impact Catastrophe That Ended the Cretaceous |
| title_full_unstemmed | Shaping of the Present-Day Deep Biosphere at Chicxulub by the Impact Catastrophe That Ended the Cretaceous |
| title_short | Shaping of the Present-Day Deep Biosphere at Chicxulub by the Impact Catastrophe That Ended the Cretaceous |
| title_sort | shaping of the present-day deep biosphere at chicxulub by the impact catastrophe that ended the cretaceous |
| topic | Science & Technology Life Sciences & Biomedicine Microbiology chicxulub impact crater deep biosphere drilling craters MICROBIAL COMMUNITIES CRYSTALLINE ROCKS GEN-NOV LIFE TERRESTRIAL GROUNDWATER EXTINCTION EXTRACTION DIVERSITY HABITAT |
| url | http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DP180100982 http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/90123 |