Overview
- A University of Michigan–led team sampled water from gas wells 650–1,640 feet deep in the Antrim Shale and used isotope tests to show that the water last contacted the surface about 11,000 years ago.
- Genetic sequencing and microscopy identified 689 fungal species including 13 previously undescribed species and other eukaryotes such as tardigrades and tiny segmented worms.
- The team quantified abundance, finding roughly 250 fungal cells in a single drop of subsurface water, and they linked biological activity to the shale by measuring carbon dioxide and methane in the samples.
- Researchers isolated and cultured more than 200 fungal strains, deposited the first public deep‑subsurface fungal collection at the University of Michigan Herbarium, and are now screening those strains for abilities to break down coal, oil, shale and plastics.
- Authors say similar ecosystems may exist in other organic‑rich rock formations and that the findings demand wider surveys and updates to carbon‑cycle and underground sequestration models because subsurface life can mobilize ancient carbon.