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Frost flowers are highly saline ice structures that grow on the surface of young sea ice, a spatially extensive environment of increasing importance in the Arctic Ocean. In a previous study, we reported organic components of frost flowers in the form of elevated levels of bacteria and exopolymers relative to underlying ice. Here, DNA was extracted from frost flowers and young sea ice, collected in springtime from a frozen lead offshore of Barrow, Alaska, to identify bacteria in these understudied environments. Evaluation of the distribution of 16S rRNA genes via four methods (microarray analysis, T- RFLP, clone library and shotgun metagenomic sequencing) indicated distinctive bacterial assemblages between the two environments, with frost flowers appearing to select for Rhizobiales. A phylogenetic placement approach, used to evaluate the distribution of similar Rhizobiales sequences in other polar marine studies, indicated that some of the observed strains represent widely distributed members of the marine rare biosphere in both the Arctic and Antarctic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We assessed satellite‐retrieved marine aerosol in the western Antarctic Peninsula (WAP) across a 12‐year period from coarse‐mode aerosol optical depth (AODC), often used as a proxy for sea spray aerosol (SSA), and marine aerosol optical depth (MAOD), a newly developed proxy for tropospheric marine aerosol. Across open ocean to coastal regions, daily fluctuations in nighttime and daytime winds, respectively, drove increasing MAOD and AODC. MAOD depicted strong correlations with wind speed across open ocean and weak correlations in coastal regions. In the open ocean, AODC exhibited a very weak significant correlation to wind speed and a weak significant correlation to sea surface temperature (SST). We thus observed that warmer SST enhanced the production of SSA, supporting prior studies. This is the first study to assess patterns of AODC in the WAP. In contrast to the tropical Pacific, seasonal patterns showed that biological activity likely contributed toward MAOD and AODC magnitudes. Plain Language Summary: The production of marine aerosol in the Bellingshausen Sea of the western Antarctic is coupled to the environment. Processes driving marine aerosol include wind speed, which produces sea spray aerosol (SSA), sea surface temperature (SST), which can enhance the production of SSA, and seasonal dynamics of sea ice melt and phytoplankton blooms, which can contribute to production of biogenic sources of marine aerosol. To study these drivers in closer detail, we used two specialized proxies of marine aerosol concentration: coarse‐mode Aerosol Optical Depth (AODC), a proxy for SSA, and Marine Aerosol Optical Depth (MAOD) a proxy for low‐altitude marine aerosol. We examined MAOD and AODC from 2007 to 2018 and found that wind speed was a driver of day‐to‐day fluxes in marine aerosol. In contrast to the tropical Pacific in which enhanced biological activity suppresses SSA particle production, we did not observe lessening of MAOD and AODC magnitudes during the biologically productive austral summertime. In fact, summertime MAOD exhibited a weak significant correlation to daily wind speed in the coastal ocean despite a lack of significance in wintertime. This work enriches our knowledge of biotic and abiotic drivers of marine aerosol in high‐latitude environments. Key Points: The open ocean and coastal Bellingshausen Sea show weak correlations of marine aerosol optical depth (MAOD) to daily windsAODC exhibits weak correlations to sea surface temperature (SST) in the open ocean and very weak correlations to daily wind speed across all regionsSeasonal increases in MAOD dependence on daily wind speed is likely associated with higher biological activity in summer [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many decades of experimental and theoretical research on the origin of life have yielded important discoveries regarding the chemical and physical conditions under which organic compounds can be synthesized and polymerized. However, such conditions often seem mutually exclusive, because they are rarely encountered in a single environmental setting. As such, no convincing models explain how living cells formed from abiotic constituents. Here, we propose a new approach that considers the origin of life within the global context of the Hadean Earth. We review previous ideas and synthesize them in four central hypotheses: (i) Multiple microenvironments contributed to the building blocks of life, and these niches were not necessarily inhabitable by the first organisms; (ii) Mineral catalysts were the backbone of prebiotic reaction networks that led to modern metabolism; (iii) Multiple local and global transport processes were essential for linking reactions occurring in separate locations; (iv) Global diversity and local selection of reactants and products provided mechanisms for the generation of most of the diverse building blocks necessary for life. We conclude that no single environmental setting can offer enough chemical and physical diversity for life to originate. Instead, any plausible model for the origin of life must acknowledge the geological complexity and diversity of the Hadean Earth. Future research may therefore benefit from identifying further linkages between organic precursors, minerals, and fluids in various environmental contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]