On 30 October 2018 the new International Center for Deep Life Investigation (ICDLI) held its Inaugural symposium at Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU), China. Following the symposium, DCO’s Deep Life Community held its final all hands meeting, from 31 October – 2 November. The meetings marked a new phase for deep life research, with the ICDLI poised to carry on deep life research beyond the culmination of the DCO decadal program in 2019. 

The meeting captured the ongoing excitement of deep life exploration. It celebrated many revelations including documentation of greater than anticipated deep life microbial diversity, insights about nitrogen cycling in the deep subsurface, the ability of life to survive in ultra-low energy habitats, and the discovery that oxygen is present in a large fraction of the subseafloor. Many of these advances are the result of improved sampling efficiency (both in terms of depth and site distribution), improved detection limits of ultra-low abundance microbial communities, the ability to identify and measure biotic versus abiotic formation of organic carbon in the deep biosphere, and enhanced interdisciplinary efforts aimed towards understanding life in the deep subsurface. 

Discussions about a potential international deep life Center began in March 2018 when Deep Life co-Chairs Mitch Sogin (Marine Biological Laboratory, USA) and Kai-Uwe Hinrichs (University of Bremen, Germany) met with Shanghai Jiao Tong University representatives. A short seven months later, the new IC-DLI formally launched. Led by Xiang Xiao and Fengping Wang of SJTU, the Center will provide a platform for continued international collaborations that seek to address key scientific issues including, but not limited to: 

• the relationship and interaction of deep life with surface life and their role in mediating the carbon cycle,
• characterizing the composition, accessibility, and amount of organic matter, electron acceptors, and electron donors (energy compounds),
• determining the temporal and geographical distribution patterns of microbial community compositions and how they control specific taxon abundance,
• determining how energy flux, temperature, and pressure define the limits of life
• exploring the diversity and function of the deep virosphere,
• and measuring evolutionary rates in the deep subsurface and their consequences.

(Originally from https://deepcarbon.net/dco-deep-life-community-launches-new-international-center) For more news please visit https://deepcarbon.net/