"Existing models of the carbon cycle ... are still a work in progress." - Dr. Mark Lever, DCO Deep Life Community Steering Committee."

UT: I know scientists are reluctant to speculate too much, for good reason. But Universe Today is primarily a space science website, and I know our readers will wonder how this knowledge relates to the Search for Life in our Solar System. Mars? Ice Moons? Other worlds?

"...our planet might turn out to be … the perfect testing ground for technologies that will enable the discovery and detailed study of life elsewhere in our solar system and beyond." - Dr. Mark Lever.

UT: Will this new knowledge of Earth’s carbon cycle and the deep biosphere have any impact on our understanding of climate change, not only now but in the deeper past?

"Even the slightest changes in the carbon exchanges between the surface and subsurface world would have dramatic consequences for Earth’s climate - at any time throughout the its history." - Dr. Mark Lever.

UT: Could the deep biosphere have played a role in Earth’s recovery from extinction events like the Permian-Triassic extinction? That’s a huge question, but is there any way to understand the deep biosphere in the past and how it may have changed over time?

UT: I keep thinking of the deep biosphere as a kind of “vault” for Earthly genetic material, a kind of inadvertent safe-keeping. Do you think there’s any accuracy to that idea?

"It seems unlikely that we will ever be able to recover intact gene sequences from Earth’s earliest living organisms in the deep biosphere."- Dr. Mark Lever, DCO.

UT: The DCO has made some stunning discoveries. What’s next for the DCO, and what do you think will be the direction for future research into the deep biosphere?

UT:What do you personally think is the most exciting discovery coming from the DCO?

"...the window of opportunity for fundamental scientific discoveries regarding the Earth’s carbon cycle remains vast." - Dr. Mark Lever, DCO.

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