Glaciers and ice sheets are now widely recognized as one of the Earth’s biomes, teeming with life. This biome is also the most under-investigated on the planet from a biological and biogeochemical perspective, representing a new and exciting frontier in science. Home to large, naturally occurring communities of mostly microbes, glaciers and ice sheets host metabolically active organisms, interacting with each other. On glacier surfaces, microbes have been shown to alter physical and chemical characteristics of snow and ice with direct consequences for snow/ice solar-heating and amplified melt. In subglacial habitats, microbial communities contribute substantial amounts of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere, and they also add to the delivery of nutrients and turbidity downstream ecosystems.

Many connections between physical, chemical, and biological processes on and under the ice and their downstream ecosystems are yet to be discovered. The study of glaciers and ice sheets as a biome and its interactions with adjacent habitats is still in its infancy. For instance, there are a number of abiotic reactions under the ice that underpin microbial activity, diversity and biogeochemical transformations that are still poorly understood. Despite many studies have now demonstrated that glaciers and ice sheets harbor active microbial communities, we know little about how viruses, bacteria, fungi, protozoan and metazoan organisms interact with each other or how microbial communities have evolved to become adapted to the glacier and ice sheet biome. The scope of the Research Topic is broad and covers:

1) Key mechanisms and controls of microbial activity in surface ice and subglacial environments;

2) Investigations of the feedback between microbes and their physical and chemical environment;

3) Conceptual models of the consequences of glacial biome loss on global and local biogeochemical cycles of adjacent habitats;

4) Advances of our understanding of the ecosystem services provided by the glacier biome.

Both original and review papers about specific aspects of the glacier and ice sheet biome are welcome, as well as mini-reviews, perspectives and opinions.

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Frontiers in Geochemistry

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