9615209 Wilson This award is for support for a one year study to further test the use of bacteria preserved in permafrost, as indicators of paleoclimate at the time the sediments were deposited and frozen. Changes in climate, especially major ones, are thought to be recognizable in the bacterial fingerprints of the sediment layers. A one year pilot project was conducted in which drilling was performed and cores were collected at a number of sites in the McMurdo Dry Valleys region of Antarctica. Viable bacteria and bacterial products (methane and enzymes) were found in the cores. The ice content of all samples was unexpectedly high (at least 25% and up to over 50%). These results provide strong support to the idea that Martian permafrost may contain ground ice and that ancient permafrost on Mars may contain samples-possibly viable-of life forms from an earlier, wetter period. Continued analyses of the existing core samples will be undertaken in this project
