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Science 19 June 2009:
Vol. 324. no. 5934, pp. 1523 - 1525
DOI: 10.1126/science.1172979
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Perspectives

Ecology:

Thriving in Salt

Antje Boetius1 and Samantha Joye2

Fluids containing ≥5% salt are classified as brines and exclude most life on Earth, but some microbes thrive at salt saturation (35% salt, 10 times the salinity of seawater). Recent findings of novel saline habitats such as subsurface aquifer seeps, deep-sea brine pools, and ancient subglacial brine (1–4) extend our knowledge on the limits of life on Earth and beyond (5) and elucidate how cycling of sulfur, methane, and iron can support microbial ecosystems in chemically isolated habitats in the absence of light (2).

1 HGF-MPG Joint Research Group for Deep Sea Ecology and Technology, Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, 27515 Bremerhaven, Germany, and Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology, 28359 Bremen, Germany.
2 Department of Marine Sciences, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA.

E-mail: aboetius{at}mpi-bremen.de; mjoye{at}uga.edu

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)