Posted
November 1, 2023
Despite being buried under a mile or more of ice, microbes eke out an existence at the boundary where the Greenland ice sheet grinds away at the ground.
What those microbes do could affect ocean ecosystems now and in a future postglacial world, says College of Biological Sciences graduate student Christopher Hansen. He works on Greenland’s west coast, at the foot of a glacier that, like the last section of a gigantic conveyor belt, carries iron, phosphorus, silica, and other nutrients vital to oceanic life toward Baffin Bay.
Hansen wants to uncover the geochemical controls on “these hidden, subglacial environments” and how they affect the nutrients that are released.
