Lacelle et al. 2010

Lacelle D, Radtke K, Clark ID, Fisher D, Lauriol B, Utting N, Whyte LG. 2011. Geomicrobiology and occluded O2-CO2-Ar gas analyses provide evidence of microbial respiration in ancient terrestrial ground ice. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 306: 46-54.

These authors compared the gas composition of ice from massive ground ice bodies (e.g. 30 000-year-old buried snowbanks) to atmospheric gas concentrations and gas contents from glacial ice. They also cultivated some microorganisms collected from within the ice, and used some non-culture-dependent methods to examine the diversity of those organisms.

Loss of O2, as determined by comparison of the ratio of O2 to Ar in samples, as well as changes to the 13C-CO2 contents indicate heterotrophic microbial activity in the ice, most likely by organisms living in high-salt brine channels in cracks in the ice, using dissolved organic carbon as both energy and C source.

This paper provides an overview of methods for extracting and measuring the gases trapped in microscopic bubbles in permafrost and ground ice, as well as interesting findings about microbial activities.