Anoxic water-ice interfaces of an emerged cold seep host chemoautotrophic microorganisms

We sampled an emerged cold seep located in Adventdalen, Svalbard, during the polar winter. The sampling targeted the ice blister forming above a small water reservoir fed by methane-satured groundwater. Microbial 16S rRNA genes and transcripts from three ice cores, water and snow samples collected in March 2021 were sequenced. The study aimed at describing microbial communities inhabiting the ice and the reservoir during the dark ice-covered period of the system.