Biomedical subjects

E Mosley-Thompson

Publications and source records attributed to E Mosley-Thompson.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2001

Isolation of bacteria and 16S rDNAs from Lake Vostok accretion ice.

Lake Vostok, the largest subglacial lake in Antarctica, is separated from the surface by approximately 4 km of glacial ice. It has been isolated from direct surface input for at least 420 000 years, and the possibility of a novel environment and ecosystem therefore exists. Lake Vostok water has not been sampled, but an ice core has been recovered that extends into the ice accreted below glacial ice by freezing of Lake Vostok water. Here, we report the recovery of bacterial isolates belonging to the Brachybacteria, Methylobacterium, Paenibacillus and Sphingomonas lineages from a sample of melt water from this accretion ice that originated 3593 m below the surface. We have also amplified small-subunit ribosomal RNA-encoding DNA molecules (16S rDNAs) directly from this melt water that originated from alpha- and beta-proteobacteria, low- and high-G+C Gram-positive bacteria and a member of the Cytophaga/Flavobacterium/Bacteroides lineage.

Antarctic Regions↗

PubMed2000

A high-resolution millennial record of the south asian monsoon from himalayan ice cores

A high-resolution ice core record from Dasuopu, Tibet, reveals that this site is sensitive to fluctuations in the intensity of the South Asian Monsoon. Reductions in monsoonal intensity are recorded by dust and chloride concentrations. The deeper, older sections of the Dasuopu cores suggest many other periods of drought in this region, but none have been of greater intensity than the greatest recorded drought, during 1790 to 1796 A.D. of the last millennium. The 20th century increase in anthropogenic activity in India and Nepal, upwind from this site, is recorded by a doubling of chloride concentrations and a fourfold increase in dust. Like other ice cores from the Tibetan Plateau, Dasuopu suggests a large-scale, plateau-wide 20th-century warming trend that appears to be amplified at higher elevations.

Journal Article↗

PubMed2000

Changes in Greenland ice sheet elevation attributed primarily to snow accumulation variability

The response of grounded ice sheets to a changing climate critically influences possible future changes in sea level. Recent satellite surveys over southern Greenland show little overall elevation change at higher elevations, but large spatial variability. Using satellite studies alone, it is not possible to determine the geophysical processes responsible for the observed elevation changes and to decide if recent rates of change exceed the natural variability. Here we derive changes in ice-sheet elevation in southern Greenland, for the years 1978-88, using a physically based model of firn densification and records of annual snow accumulation reconstructed from 12 ice cores at high elevation. Our patterns of accumulation-driven elevation change agree closely with contemporaneous satellite measurements of ice-sheet elevation change, and we therefore attribute the changes observed in 1978-88 to variability in snow accumulation. Similar analyses of longer ice-core records show that in this decade the Greenland ice sheet exhibited typical variability at high elevations, well within the long-term natural variability. Our results indicate that a better understanding of ice-sheet mass changes will require long-term measurements of both surface elevation and snow accumulation.

Journal Article↗

PubMed1998

A 25,000-year tropical climate history from bolivian ice cores

Ice cores that were recovered from the summit of Sajama mountain in Bolivia provide carbon-14-dated tropical records and extend to the Late Glacial Stage (LGS). Oxygen isotopic ratios of the ice decreased 5.4 per mil between the early Holocene and the Last Glacial Maximum, which is consistent with values from other ice cores. The abrupt onset and termination of a Younger Dryas-type event suggest atmospheric processes as the probable drivers. Regional accumulation increased during the LGS, during deglaciation, and over the past 3000 years, which is concurrent with higher water levels in regional paleolakes. Unlike polar cores, Sajama glacial ice contains eight times less dust than the Holocene ice, which reflects wetter conditions and extensive snow cover.

Journal Article↗