Australian Acid Playa Lake as a Mars Analog: Results from Sediment Lipid Analysis

Abstract:

The ephemeral saline acidic lakes on the Yilgarn Craton of Western Australia have been suggested as geochemical analogues to martian terrains. Both are characterized by interbedded phyllosilicates and hydrated sulfates. On Mars, these areas indicate shifting environmental conditions, from the neutral/alkaline and wet conditions that dominated during the Noachian era to the more familiar dry, acidic conditions that began in the Hesperian. The habitability of such a dynamic environment can be informed by investigation of the Yilgarn Lake system. Previous work has found phospholipid fatty acids (PLFA) evidence of microbial communities in sections of sediment cores taken from Lake Gilmore. These communities include both Gram-positive and -negative bacteria, Actinomycetes, and even methanotrophs. Given recurring detection of methane on the martian surface, evidence of a methane cycling community in an analogous environment is of particular interest.

In this study we analyze the carbon isotope composition of bulk organic material as well as extracted lipids from the Lake Gilmore sediment cores at both a near-shore and mid-lake location. These analyses reveal very low accumulations of organic carbon, concentrated primarily in the gypsum-rich near-shore core. The near-shore sediments show a down-core decrease in abundance of organic carbon as well as depletion in the carbon isotope composition (δ¹³C) with depth. Bulk carbon did not exhibit the unique, highly depleted, diagnostic signature associated with methanotrophic biomass. Compound-specific isotope analysis (CSIA) of carbon in extracted methanotroph PFLAs can confirm the presence of a methane cycling metabolism at depth. Also, additional extractions have isolated lipids associated with lake-edge grasses. These analyses consider both the chain-length distribution and carbon CSIA of these lipids in order to understand the effect of terrestrial detritus on any preserved methanotroph carbon signal, given the very low amounts of microbial biomass found in lake cores. While the mineralogy does not suggest anaerobic conditions, further investigation includes extraction of archaeal lipids in order to identify the presence of any methanogenic community associated with the putative methanotrophic community.