title: Removal of Exogenous Materials from the Outer Portion of Frozen Cores to Investigate the Ancient Biological Communities Harbored Inside.
abstract: The cryosphere offers access to preserved organisms that persisted under past environmental conditions. In fact, these frozen materials could reflect conditions over vast time periods and investigation of biological materials harbored inside could provide insight of ancient environments. To appropriately analyze these ecosystems and extract meaningful biological information from frozen soils and ice, proper collection and processing of the frozen samples is necessary. This is especially critical for microbial and DNA analyses since the communities present may be so uniquely different from modern ones. Here, a protocol is presented to successfully collect and decontaminate frozen cores. Both the absence of the colonies used to dope the outer surface and exogenous DNA suggest that we successfully decontaminated the frozen cores and that the microorganisms detected were from the material, rather than contamination from drilling or processing the cores.
authors.affiliation: Biogeochemical Sciences Branch, Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory, US Army Engineer Research & Development Center, Hanover, NH; Robyn.A.Barbato@erdc.dren.mil.
authors.forename: Robyn A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Barbato
authors.affiliation: Environmental Processes Branch, Environmental Laboratory, US Army Engineer Research & Development Center, Vicksburg, MS.
authors.forename: Natàlia
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Garcia-Reyero
authors.affiliation: Biogeochemical Sciences Branch, Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory, US Army Engineer Research & Development Center, Hanover, NH.
authors.forename: Karen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Foley
authors.affiliation: Biogeochemical Sciences Branch, Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory, US Army Engineer Research & Development Center, Hanover, NH.
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Jones
authors.affiliation: Terrestrial and Cryospheric Scienes Branch, Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory, US Army Engineer Research & Development Center, Hanover, NH.
authors.forename: Zoe
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Courville
authors.affiliation: Biogeochemical Sciences Branch, Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory, US Army Engineer Research & Development Center, Fairbanks, AK.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Douglas
authors.affiliation: Environmental Processes Branch, Environmental Laboratory, US Army Engineer Research & Development Center, Vicksburg, MS.
authors.forename: Edward
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Perkins
authors.affiliation: Biogeochemical Sciences Branch, Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory, US Army Engineer Research & Development Center, Fairbanks, AK.
authors.forename: Charles M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Reynolds
mesh_terms: D058448:Biota; D017753:Ecosystem; D012987:Soil
chemical_list: D012987:Soil