Integral Prospection of Andean Microbial Ecosystem Project

Farı́as, Marı́a Eugenia; Villafañe, Patricio Guillermo; Lencina, Agustina I.

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-36192-1_17

Cited by 12 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 49 publications

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“…Such extreme conditions typically subject resident biota to wide fluctuations in salinity, as well as temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen, total dissolved solids and redox potential 72 , 73 . Spatial variability in these biologically-relevant parameters have significant implications 12 , 14 , 20 , 22 , 30 , 41 , 43 , 64 , 65 for the distribution of microbiological communities and mineral precipitation that is observed within the various chemical niches produced by the environmental gradients that characterize the Puquios ecosystem.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Given the reported diversity of water chemistry, biota, minerals, and structures, of other microbial Andean ecosystems within Chile, Bolivia, and Argentina 26 , 93 , we hypothesize that heterogeneity similar to that observed in the Puquios is likely to be a common characteristic of extreme environments and that seasonal environmental variability, changes in electrical conductivity driven by seasonal cycles of evaporation, and groundwater flow are likely to impact all of the ecological niches to varying degrees at different times of the year. This concept is critical when characterizing such ecosystems, since a single sample is likely not representative of the entire system.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Electrical conductivity as a driver of biological and geological spatial heterogeneity in the Puquios, Salar de Llamara, Atacama Desert, Chile

Reid

Oehlert

Suosaari

et al. 2021

Sci Rep

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Reputed to be the driest desert in the world, the Atacama Desert in the Central Andes of Northern Chile is an extreme environment with high UV radiation, wide temperature variation, and minimum precipitation. Scarce lagoons associated with salt flats (salars) in this desert are the surface expression of shallow groundwater; these ponds serve as refugia for life and often host microbial communities associated with evaporitic mineral deposition. Results based on multidisciplinary field campaigns and associated laboratory examination of samples collected from the Puquios of the Salar de Llamara in the Atacama Desert during austral summer provide unprecedented detail regarding the spatial heterogeneity of physical, chemical, and biological characteristics of these salar environments. Four main lagoons (‘Puquios’) and more than 400 smaller ponds occur within an area less than 5 km2, and are characterized by high variability in electrical conductivity, benthic and planktonic biota, microbiota, lagoon bottom type, and style of mineral deposition. Results suggest that electrical conductivity is a driving force of system heterogeneity. Such spatial heterogeneity within the Puquios is likely to be expanded with temporal observations incorporating expected seasonal changes in electrical conductivity. The complexity of these Andean ecosystems may be key to their ability to persist in extreme environments at the edge of habitability.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Electrical conductivity as a driver of biological and geological spatial heterogeneity in the Puquios, Salar de Llamara, Atacama Desert, Chile

Reid

Oehlert

Suosaari

et al. 2021

Sci Rep

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“…All the aforementioned suggest that this MAG could be also chemolithoautotrophic which uses S° as energy source and CO 2 as the main carbon source. This MAG showed methanogen capability, in this regard, among methanogenic archaea previously detected in the El Tatio, genera Methanospirilum and Methanobrevibacter have been reported as the most prevalent [ 27 ]. In addition, they identified a group of unclassified Crenarchaeota which were associated with this functionality.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 89%

“…Moreover, Crenarchaeotes are mainly isolated from hot-springs and soils containing high sulphur and sulphides concentrations [ 26 ]. Regarding archaeal detected in El Tatio, Crenarchaeota is one of the most abundant phyla which is evidence of a significant role in this environment [ 8 , 11 , 27 ]. In addition, Crenarchaeota phylum has been described as one of the main active archaeal phyla in other Chilean extreme environments such as Huasco Salar [ 28 , 29 ].…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Two Archaeal Metagenome-Assembled Genomes from El Tatio Provide New Insights into the Crenarchaeota Phylum

Santos

Bruna

Martínez-Urtaza

et al. 2021

Genes

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A phylogenomic and functional analysis of the first two Crenarchaeota MAGs belonging to El Tatio geysers fields in Chile is reported. A soil sample contiguous to a geothermal activity exposed lagoon of El Tatio was used for shotgun sequencing. Afterwards, contigs were binned into individual population-specific genomes data. A phylogenetic placement was carried out for both MAG 9-5TAT and MAG 47-5TAT. Then functional comparisons and metabolic reconstruction were carried out. Results showed that both MAG 9-5TAT and MAG 47-5TAT likely represent new species in the genus Thermoproteus and the genus Sulfolobus, respectively. These findings provide new insights into the phylogenetic and genomic diversity for archaea species that inhabit the El Tatio geysers field and expand the understanding of the Crenarchaeota phylum diversity.

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“…Examples of extreme environments, where biologic communities persist at the edge of habitability, are common throughout some Andean ecosystems of South America 3,7,8 . Studies of more than 40 microbial ecosystems in Chile, Argentina, and Bolivia document a wide range of geological, chemical, biological and mineralogical processes occurring in these extreme environments [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22] . Previous studies of these microbial ecosystems are predominantly focused on the deposition of carbonate minerals 12-14, 19,23 , while the other studies have focused on the deposition of evaporitic minerals including gypsum, halite, and anhydrite, which dominate many of these systems 15,18,19,24−30 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Multidisciplinary Evaluation of Spatial Heterogeneity in the Puquios of the Salar de Llamara, Atacama Desert, Northern Chile

Oehlert

Suosaari

et al. 2021

Preprint

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The Atacama Desert, Central Andes of Northern Chile, is an extreme environment characterized by high UV radiation, wide temperature variation, minimum precipitation and is reputed as the driest desert in the world. Scarce lagoons associated with salt flats (salars) in this desert are the surface expression of shallow groundwater which serve as refugia for life, and often host microbial communities associated with evaporitic mineral deposition. Recent investigations of the Puquios of the Salar de Llamara in the Atacama Desert based on multidisciplinary field studies provide unprecedented detail regarding the spatial heterogeneity of physical, chemical, and biological characteristics of such saline lake environments. Four main lagoons (‘Puquios’) and more than 400 smaller ponds, occur in an area less than 5 km2, are characterized by high variability in electrical conductivity, benthic and planktonic biota and microbiota, lagoon bottom type, and style of mineral deposition. The heterogeneity of system parameters as observed spatially in the Puquios is likely to be expanded with temporal observations incorporating seasonality. Results provide new insight into the complexity of these Andean ecosystems, which may be key to resilience in extreme environments at the edge of habitability.

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Integral Prospection of Andean Microbial Ecosystem Project

Cited by 12 publications

References 49 publications

Electrical conductivity as a driver of biological and geological spatial heterogeneity in the Puquios, Salar de Llamara, Atacama Desert, Chile

Electrical conductivity as a driver of biological and geological spatial heterogeneity in the Puquios, Salar de Llamara, Atacama Desert, Chile

Two Archaeal Metagenome-Assembled Genomes from El Tatio Provide New Insights into the Crenarchaeota Phylum

A Multidisciplinary Evaluation of Spatial Heterogeneity in the Puquios of the Salar de Llamara, Atacama Desert, Northern Chile

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