Scientists set out to explore microbial life in glacier streams

EPFL scientists will spend at least the next four years studying some of the world's biggest glacier-fed streams. By collecting microorganisms from the streams and extracting their DNA, they hope to better understand how these creatures have adapted to their extreme environments. The project, slated to start on 1 August 2018, will be the inaugural research program for the Alpine and Polar Environment Research Center (Alpole) at the EPFL Valais Wallis campus in Sion. What else besides water do we lose as glaciers vanish? That's the question a team of scientists led by EPFL will set out to answer on an unprecedented expedition set to last at least four years. They will travel to the world's largest mountain glacier systems, collecting microorganisms from hundreds of glacier-fed streams and analyzing their genomes. Through a combination of environmental sciences, life sciences and geology, they hope to learn how these microbiomes have adapted over the millennia to the extreme conditions they are exposed to. Through this project, which officially starts on 1 August 2018, the international team of scientists will explore the "third pole" through glacial streams in Alaska, the Himalayas, the Andes, Greenland, Scandinavia, Pamir, Kamchatka, Caucasus, New Zealand and the European Alps.