Microorganisms in a high altitude glacier ice in Tibet.

Eighty-one strains of viable microorganisms were recovered from 23 samples collected from Ice Core 3 of Malan Glacier (China, 91 degrees 45.3' E, 35 degrees 48.4' N) drilled at high altitude (5620 m). All the strains were prokaryotes--75 of bacteria (including spore-forming ones) and 6 of actinomycetes. The characteristic genera differ from those of Arctic and Antarctic ice, in which many fungi and algae are widely distributed; this shows an difference of environmental conditions between Tibet and polar regions. The variation in number and species of Bacillus in different ice core layers implied changes of environmental conditions in the past.