This Small Grant for Exploratory Research (SGER) supports the research to assess the feasibility of recovering ancient microorganisms entrapped in deep glacial ice cores. A major goal will be to establish the reliability of obtaining ancient organisms for comparative studies with contemporary ogranisms. The reseach will establish valid techniques for the recovery of microorganisms from ice cores stored at the Ice Core Storage Facility in Buffalo, N.Y., and then attempt in recover viable, ancient organisms from ice cores drilled in Greenland and Antarctica. By studying successively older strata in ice cores, the longevity of different taxa entrapped in ice can be estimated. Organisms that are successfully recovered can also be used as model organisms for research on rates of biological evolution, mechanisms of dormancy, their ecological relevance and processes of natural preservation.
