Graduate students, microbe goo …
What is it that links the two?
It seems that both life forms are found
Where electron donors (food) abound!
Sed rates, organic stuff control
Cell distribution on the whole.
New techniques birth a new notion:
Sub-seafloor mass, the same as ocean.
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Further reading:
Downsizing the Deep Biosphere, Perspective, Science 2012
Global distribution of microbial abundance and biomass in subseafloor sediment, Kallmeyer et. al., PNAS 2012
Katherine Allen is a researcher in geochemistry and paleoclimate at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory.