Microbial Ecosystems in Central Andes Extreme Environments: Biofilms, Microbial Mats, Microbialites and Endoevaporites

✍ Scribed by María Eugenia Farías

• Publisher: Springer International Publishing;Springer
• Year: 2020
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 298
• Edition: 1st ed.
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

The Central Andean Altiplane represents a unique extreme environment due to its high altitude, closed basins that modulate the salt pans and saline wetlands surrounded by deserts, as well as the considerable influence of volcanic activity. UV radiation, arsenic content, high salinity, alkalinity and low dissolved oxygen levels, together with extreme daily temperature fluctuations and oligotrophic conditions, shape an environment that resembles the early Earth and, even more, extraterrestrial conditions. By developing simple biofilms stratified microbial mats or complex microbialites, extreme microbial ecosystems, colonize and thrived in different environments like salt flats, wetlands, lakes volcano vents, geysers and deserts. This book presents our current understanding of these amazing ecosystems, providing a basis for their protection and sustainable utilization. The main audience for this book included researchers and graduate students as well as professionals working in the government, mining industry and similar activities.

✦ Table of Contents

Front Matter ....Pages i-xxiv
Front Matter ....Pages 1-1
Origin and Evolution of the Central Andes: Deserts, Salars, Lakes, and Volcanoes (Ricardo N. Alonso, Walter Rojas)....Pages 3-19
Modern Microbial Mats and Endoevaporite Systems in Andean Lakes: A General Approach (María Eugenia Farías, Luis Alberto Saona Acuña)....Pages 21-33
Front Matter ....Pages 35-35
The Desert Polyextreme Environment and Endolithic Habitats (Jacek Wierzchos, Carmen Ascaso, Octavio Artieda, María Cristina Casero)....Pages 37-49
Preandean Atacama Desert Endolithic Microbiology (María Cristina Casero, Victoria Meslier, Jacek Wierzchos, Jocelyne DiRuggiero)....Pages 51-71
Desert Biosignatures (Petr Vítek, Jacek Wierzchos)....Pages 73-85
Microbial Characterization of Andean Peatland’s Soil (Carolina Belfiore, Ana Paula Santos, Alejandra Leonor Valdez, Manuel Contreras Leiva, María Eugenia Farías)....Pages 87-93
Front Matter ....Pages 95-95
Of Microbes and Mummies: Tales of Microbial Activity and Inactivity at 6000 m a.s.l. (Steven K. Schmidt, Preston Sowell, Zachary R. Schubert, Lara Vimercati, Adam J. Solon, Dorota L. Porazinska et al.)....Pages 97-112
A Unique Natural Laboratory to Study Polyextremophile Microorganisms: Diamante Lake as a Window to the Origin of Life (Tatiana Stepanenko, Mariana N. Soria, Luis Alberto Saona Acuña, Agustina I. Lencina, María Eugenia Farías)....Pages 113-120
Front Matter ....Pages 121-121
Microbial Communities Composition, Activity, and Dynamics at Salar de Huasco: A Polyextreme Environment in the Chilean Altiplano (Cristina Dorador, Verónica Molina, Martha Hengst, Yoanna Eissler, Marcela Cornejo, Camila Fernández et al.)....Pages 123-139
Prokaryotic Diversity at the Hypersaline Laguna Tebenquiche in the Salar de Atacama, Chile (Ana Beatriz Fernández, Pieter T. Visscher, María Cecilia Rasuk, Manuel Contreras Leiva, María Eugenia Farías)....Pages 141-152
Complete Characterization of Stratified Ecosystems of the Salar de Llamara (Atacama Desert) (María Cecilia Rasuk, Manuel Contreras Leiva, Daniel Kurth, María Eugenia Farías)....Pages 153-164
Microbial Diversity in Athalassohaline Argentinean Salterns (Merit del Rocío Mora-Ruiz, Carlos Díaz-Gil)....Pages 165-179
Front Matter ....Pages 181-181
Characterization of Microbialites and Microbial Mats of the Laguna Negra Hypersaline Lake (Puna of Catamarca, Argentina) (Flavia Jaquelina Boidi, Estela Cecilia Mlewski, Fernando Javier Gomez, Emmanuelle Gérard)....Pages 183-203
Extreme Microbiology at Laguna Socompa: A High-Altitude Andean Lake (3570 m a.s.l.) in Salta, Argentina (Virginia Helena Albarracín, Fátima Silvina Galván, María Eugenia Farías)....Pages 205-220
Mats and Microbialites from Laguna La Brava (María Cecilia Rasuk, Pieter T. Visscher, Manuel Contreras Leiva, María Eugenia Farías)....Pages 221-230
The Carbonate System in Hypersaline Lakes: The Case of Laguna Negra (in the Puna Region of Catamarca, Argentina) (Fernando Javier Gomez, Flavia Jaquelina Boidi, Estela Cecilia Mlewski, Emmanuelle Gérard)....Pages 231-242
Front Matter ....Pages 243-243
Integral Prospection of Andean Microbial Ecosystem Project (María Eugenia Farías, Patricio G. Villafañe, Agustina I. Lencina)....Pages 245-260
Linear Megaplasmids Spreading in the Andean Resistome (Martin Wagenknecht, María Florencia Pérez, Julián Rafael Dib)....Pages 261-273
Arsenic and Its Biological Role: From Early Earth to Current Andean Microbial Ecosystems (Luis Alberto Saona Acuña, Mariana N. Soria, Patricio G. Villafañe, Tatiana Stepanenko, María Eugenia Farías)....Pages 275-284
Back Matter ....Pages 285-292

✦ Subjects

Life Sciences; Microbial Ecology; Ecosystems; Astrobiology; Nature Conservation; Environmental and Sustainability Education