I am excited to share that a chapter of my dissertation research on hot spring lipid biosignatures titled, “Lipid Hydrogen Stable Isotope Probing Reveals Decadal-Scale Generation Times for Archaea in Hot Spring Sediments,” has been submitted to JGR Biogeosciences and is now available on bioRxiv.

Using lipid hydrogen stable isotope probing (LH-SIP), we directly measured archaeal lipid biosynthesis in high-temperature hot spring sediments from Yellowstone National Park and the El Tatio Geyserfield (Atacama Desert, Chile). We found that archaeal membrane lipids are produced extremely slowly, with apparent generation times on the order of decades, providing new constraints on biosignature production and preservation in hydrothermal systems relevant to early Earth and Mars exploration.

Key findings

• First application of LH-SIP to terrestrial hot spring sediments
• Archaeal lipid production occurs on decadal timescales
• Hot spring sediments at Beryl Spring (Yellowstone) showed apparent generation times of ~16 ± 7 years
• Results support hydrothermal deposits as promising targets for biosignature preservation and life detection on Mars