‘Follow the Water’: Hydrogeochemical Constraints on Microbial Investigations 2.4 km Below Surface at the Kidd Creek Deep Fluid and Deep Life Observatory

Abstract

Microbiological and geochemical data are presented to characterize the hydrogeochemistry and to investigate extant microbial life in fracture waters 2.4?km below surface, at the Kidd Creek Observatory in Canada. Previous studies identified the world’s oldest groundwaters with mean residence times on the order of millions to billions of years trapped in fractures in Precambrian host rock here. In this study, major ion chemistry, δ¹⁸O and δ²H isotopic signatures and dissolved gases in the fracture waters are shown to be distinct from potential contamination end-members, demonstrating the fracture waters are not impacted by waters used in mining operations. A previous work on sulfur isotope signatures suggested a longstanding indigenous population of sulfate-reducing bacteria in these highly reducing fluids and sufficient sulfate to support microbial activity. Here, we report the first evidence for extant visible and cultivable microbial life at this location. Anaerobic metabolisms were investigated using the Most Probable Number (MPN) method. The fracture fluids contained extant cells at low biomass density (～10³–10⁴ cells/mL) and showed a strong response from autotrophic sulfate-reducers and alkane-oxidizing sulfate reducers. These lines of evidence provide the interpretational framework (chemical, hydrogeologic, and microbiologic) essential to the on-going genomic and metagenomic investigations at the Kidd Creek Observatory – the world’s most longstanding location for investigation of subsurface fluids and deep life at such profound depth.     

A Statistical Perspective on Prevention Trials: A View from the Women’s Health Initiative

Chronic disease prevention trials test strategies to reduce the risk of a specific health event in generally healthy people. These strategies are often thought to affect other health conditions and their use in the population requires a very favorable safety profile. A prevention trial assessing such a strategy is most valuable when designed to capture the overall public health impact and hence provide more comprehensive, reliable information for policy and practice. This broad agenda, and particularly the assessment of multiple outcomes, creates statistical challenges in the design, monitoring, and reporting of such a trial. In this article these issues are described in the context of the Women’s Health Initiative, a large randomized prevention trial testing three interventions in post-menopausal women: hormone therapy, a low-fat diet and calcium and vitamin D supplementation. Each intervention was hypothesized to influence multiple chronic disease rates including cardiovascular disease, stroke, cancers, and fractures. Here the design, monitoring, and reporting of the WHI trials is reviewed in the context of multiple outcomes and the approach to a global assessment of these interventions is described.