Retreating Peruvian glacier is studied

BOULDER, Colo., Sept. 10 (UPI) -- As an Andean glacier retreats, tiny life forms move in, and U.S. scientists say that has implications for how life might have once flourished on Mars.

A University of Colorado-Boulder study of microbes beneath the retreating Puca Glacier at 16,400 feet in the Peruvian Andes is the first to show how barren soils uncovered by retreating glacier ice can swiftly establish a thriving community of microbes, setting the table for lichens, mosses and alpine plants.

The discovery is the first to reveal how microbial life becomes established and flourishes in one of the most extreme environments on Earth and has implications for how life may have once flourished on Mars, said Professor Steve Schmidt. He said the research also provides new insights into how microorganisms are adapting to global warming in cold ecosystems on Earth.

"The most startling finding was how much the diversity increased in just four years in what was seemingly barren soil," said Schmidt, whose team conducted their research from 2000 to 2005 on the glacier, which is receding uphill about 60 feet a year.