1 Lloyd K. G. et al. Effects of dissolved sulfide, pH, and temperature on growth and survival of marine hyperthermophilic archaea. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 71, 6383–87 (2005).

2 Lennon J. T., Jones S. E. Microbial seed banks: The ecological and evolutionary implications of dormancy. Nat. Rev. Microbiol. 9, 119–30 (2011).

3 Alnimr A. M. Dormancy models for mycobacterium tuberculosis: A minireview. Braz. J. Microbiol. 46, 641–47 (2015).

4 Davis K. E. R. et al. Effects of growth medium, inoculum size, and incubation time on culturability and isolation of soil bacteria. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 71, 826–34 (2005).

5 Könneke M. et al. Isolation of an autotrophic ammonia-oxidizing marine archaeon. Nature. 437, 543–46 (2005); Rappe M. S. et al. Cultivation of the ubiquitous SAR11 marine bacterioplankton clade. Nature. 418, 630–33 (2002).

6 Nauhaus K. et al. In vitro cell growth of marine archaeal-bacterial consortia during anaerobic oxidation of methane with sulfate. Environ. Microbiol. 9, 187–96 (2007); Imachi H. et al. Isolation of an archaeon at the prokaryote – eukaryote interface. Nature. 577, 519–25 (2020); Katayama T. et al. Isolation of a member of the candidate phylum “Atribacteria” reveals a unique cell membrane structure. Nat. Commun. 11, 1–9 (2020).

7 Bradley J. A. et al. Widespread energy limitation to life in global subseafloor sediments. Sci. Adv. 6, eaba0697 (2020); Hoehler T. M., Jørgensen B. B. Microbial life under extreme energy limitation. Nat. Rev. Microbiol. 11, 83–94 (2013); Larowe D. E., Amend J. P. Power limits for microbial life. Front. Microbiol. 6, 1–11 (2015).

8 Lloyd K. G. et al. Evidence for a growth zone for deep subsurface microbial clades in near-surface anoxic sediments. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 86, 1–13 (2020); Starnawski P. et al. Microbial community assembly and evolution in subseafloor sediment. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 114, 2940–45 (2017); Braun S. et al. Size and carbon content of sub-seafloor microbial cells at Landsort Deep, Baltic Sea. Front. Microbiol. 7, 1–13 (2016).

9 Trembath-Reichert E. et al. Methyl-compound use and slow growth characterize microbial life in 2-km-deep subseafloor coal and shale beds. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 114, E9206–E9215 (2017).

10 Braun S. et al. Size and carbon content of sub-seafloor microbial cells at Landsort Deep, Baltic Sea. Front. Microbiol. 7, 1–13 (2016).

11 Starnawski P. et al. Microbial community assembly and evolution in subseafloor sediment. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 114, 2940–45 (2017); Walsh E. A. et al. Bacterial diversity and community composition from seasurface to subseafloor. ISME J. 10, 979–89 (2016).

12 Teske A., Sørensen K. B. Uncultured archaea in deep marine subsurface sediments: Have we caught them all? ISME J. 2, 3–18 (2008); Durbin A. M., Teske A. Archaea in organic-lean and organic-rich marine subsurface sediments: An environmental gradient reflected in distinct phylogenetic lineages. Front. Microbiol. 3, 168 (2012).

13 Steen A. D. et al. Kinetics and identities of extracellular peptidases in subsurface sediments of the White Oak River Estuary, NC. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 85, 1–14 (2019).

14 Bird J. T. et al. Uncultured microbial phyla suggest mechanisms for multi-thousand-year subsistence in Baltic Sea sediments. mBio. 10, 1–15 (2019).

15 Finkel S. E. Long-term survival during stationary phase: Evolution and the GASP phenotype. Nat. Rev. Microbiol. 4, 113–20 (2006).

16 Lloyd K. G. et al. Evidence for a growth zone for deep subsurface microbial clades in near-surface anoxic sediments. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 86, 1–13 (2020).

17 Steen A. D., Arnosti C. Long lifetimes of β-glucosidase, leucine aminopeptidase, and phosphatase in Arctic seawater. Mar. Chem. 123, 127–32 (2011).

18 Pianka E. R. On r- and K-Selection. Am. Soc. Nat. 104, 592–97 (1970).