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Characterization of bacterial diversity associated with microbial mats, gypsum evaporites and carbonate microbialites in thalassic wetlands: Tebenquiche and La Brava, Salar de Atacama, Chile

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Abstract

In this paper, we report the presence of sedimentary microbial ecosystems in wetlands of the Salar de Atacama. These laminated systems, which bind, trap and precipitate mineral include: microbial mats at Laguna Tebenquiche and Laguna La Brava, gypsum domes at Tebenquiche and carbonate microbialites at La Brava. Microbial diversity and key biogeochemical characteristics of both lakes (La Brava and Tebenquiche) and their various microbial ecosystems (non-lithifying mats, flat and domal microbialites) were determined. The composition and abundance of minerals ranged from trapped and bound halite in organic-rich non-lithifying mats to aragonite-dominated lithified flat microbialites and gypsum in lithified domal structures. Pyrosequencing of the V4 region of the 16s rDNA gene showed that Proteobacteria comprised a major phylum in all of the microbial ecosystems studied, with a marked lower abundance in the non-lithifying mats. A higher proportion of Bacteroidetes was present in Tebenquiche sediments compared to La Brava samples. The concentration of pigments, particularly that of Chlorophyll a, was higher in the Tebenquiche than in La Brava. Pigments typically associated with anoxygenic phototrophic bacteria were present in lower amounts. Organic-rich, non-lithifying microbial mats frequently formed snake-like, bulbous structures due to gas accumulation underneath the mat. We hypothesize that the lithified microbialites might have developed from these snake-like microbial mats following mineral precipitation in the surface layer, producing domes with endoevaporitic communities in Tebenquiche and carbonate platforms in La Brava. Whereas the potential role of microbes in carbonate platforms is well established, the contribution of endoevaporitic microbes to formation of gypsum domes needs further investigation.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by Préstamo BID PICT 2010 No. 1788-Agencia Nacional de Promoción Científica y Tecnológica and Loreal-CONICET-UNESCO for Women in Science price. Flores, Kurth, Rasuk and Maldonado are recipients of a CONICET fellowship. We also want to thank Lic. Cecilia Genazzini and Mr. Pablo García of CONICET for their assistance in the XRD laboratory.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratorio de Investigaciones Microbiológicas de Lagunas Andinas (LIMLA), Planta Piloto de Procesos Industriales Microbiológicos (PROIMI), CCT, CONICET, Tucumán, Argentina

    M. E. Farías, M. C. Rasuk, D. Kurth & M. R. Flores

  2. Centro de Ecología Aplicada (CEA), Suecia 3304, Ñuñoa, 2-2741872, Santiago, Chile

    M. Contreras & F. Novoa

  3. Centro de Investigaciones Geológicas, Universidad Nacional de La Plata-Conicet, calle 1 no 644, 1900, La Plata, Argentina

    D. G. Poiré

  4. Center for Integrative, Geosciences University of Connecticut, 354 Mansfield Road, Storrs, CT, 06269, USA

    P. T. Visscher

  5. Australian Centre for Astrobiology, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, 2052, Australia

    P. T. Visscher

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  1. M. E. Farías
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Farías, M.E., Contreras, M., Rasuk, M.C. et al. Characterization of bacterial diversity associated with microbial mats, gypsum evaporites and carbonate microbialites in thalassic wetlands: Tebenquiche and La Brava, Salar de Atacama, Chile. Extremophiles 18, 311–329 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00792-013-0617-6

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