Leben im und unter dem Eis

Das Leben im und unter dem Eis der Polarmeere gibt uns noch immer viele Rätsel auf- wir bezeichnen eisige Lebensräume als „extrem" und wundem uns über die besonderen Anpassungen von Mikroorganismen, Pflanzen und Tieren sowie einiger menschlicher Kulturen an die gefrorene Umwelt. Die ersten Polarforscher riskierten ihr Lehen, um in die eisigen Weiten vorzudringen. Mittlerweile, scheint eher der Mensch die Natur als die Natur den Menschen zue drohen. Das Eis der Polarregionen - besonders der Arktis - schwindet durch die globale Erwärmung we- sentlich schneller als vorhergesagt. Die Zukunß der eishedeckten Lebensräume und ihrer Bewohner ist ungewiss

Explosive volcanism on the ultraslow-spreading Gakkel ridge, Arctic Ocean

Author Posting. © Nature Publishing Group, 2008. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Nature Publishing Group for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Nature 453 (2008): 1236-1238, doi:10.1038/nature07075.Roughly 60% of the Earth’s outer surface is comprised of oceanic crust formed by volcanic processes at mid-ocean ridges (MORs). Although only a small fraction of this vast volcanic terrain has been visually surveyed and/or sampled, the available evidence suggests that explosive eruptions are rare on MORs, particularly at depths below the critical point for steam (3000 m). A pyroclastic deposit has never been observed on the seafloor below 3000 m, presumably because the volatile content of mid-ocean ridge basalts is generally too low to produce the gas fractions required to fragment a magma at such high hydrostatic pressure. We employed new deep submergence technologies during an International Polar Year expedition to the Gakkel Ridge in the Arctic Basin at 85°E, to acquire the first-ever photographic images of ‘zero-age’ volcanic terrain on this remote, ice-covered MOR. Our imagery reveals that the axial valley at 4000 m water depth is blanketed with unconsolidated pyroclastic deposits, including bubble wall fragments (limu o Pele), covering a large area greater than 10 km2. At least 13.5 wt% CO2 is required to fragment magma at these depths, which is ~10x greater than the highest values measured to-date in a MOR basalt. These observations raise important questions regarding the accumulation and discharge of magmatic volatiles at ultra-slow spreading rates on the Gakkel Ridge (6- 14 mm yr-1, full-rate), and demonstrate that large-scale pyroclastic activity is possible along even the deepest portions of the global MOR volcanic system.This research was funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the National Science Foundation, and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

New Butenolides from Two Marine Streptomycetes

Chemical examination of two marine Streptomycetes has resulted in the isolation of four new butenolides, namely 4,10-dihydroxy-10-methyl-dodec-2-en-1,4-olide (1), two diastereomeric 4,11-dihydroxy-10-methyl-dodec-2-en-1,4-olides (2/3), and 4-hydroxy-10-methyl-11-oxo-dodec-2-en-1,4-olide (4). The structures wereidentified by interpretation of the 2D NMR and mass spectral data