Hypolithic Cyanobacteria Supported Mainly by Fog in the Coastal Range of the Atacama Desert

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dc.contributor.authorAzua-Bustos, Armando
dc.contributor.authorGonzalez-Silva, Carlos
dc.contributor.authorMancilla, Rodrigo A.
dc.contributor.authorSalas, Loreto
dc.contributor.authorGomez-Silva, Benito
dc.contributor.authorMcKay, Christopher P.
dc.contributor.authorVicuna, Rafael
dc.date.accessioned2025-01-21T00:02:30Z
dc.date.available2025-01-21T00:02:30Z
dc.date.issued2011
dc.description.abstractThe Atacama Desert is one of the driest places on Earth, with an arid core highly adverse to the development of hypolithic cyanobacteria. Previous work has shown that when rain levels fall below similar to 1 mm per year, colonization of suitable quartz stones falls to virtually zero. Here, we report that along the coast in these arid regions, complex associations of cyanobacteria, archaea, and heterotrophic bacteria inhabit the undersides of translucent quartz stones. Colonization rates in these areas, which receive virtually no rain but mainly fog, are significantly higher than those reported inland in the hyperarid zone at the same latitude. Here, hypolithic colonization rates can be up to 80%, with all quartz rocks over 20 g being colonized. This finding strongly suggests that hypolithic microbial communities thriving in the seaward face of the Coastal Range can survive with fog as the main regular source of moisture. A model is advanced where the development of the hypolithic communities under quartz stones relies on a positive feedback between fog availability and the higher thermal conductivity of the quartz rocks, which results in lower daytime temperatures at the quartz-soil interface microenvironment.
dc.description.funderMillennium Institute of Fundamental and Applied Biology, MIFAB (Chile)
dc.fuente.origenWOS
dc.identifier.doi10.1007/s00248-010-9784-5
dc.identifier.eissn1432-184X
dc.identifier.issn0095-3628
dc.identifier.urihttps://doi.org/10.1007/s00248-010-9784-5
dc.identifier.urihttps://repositorio.uc.cl/handle/11534/95427
dc.identifier.wosidWOS:000289295100009
dc.issue.numero3
dc.language.isoen
dc.pagina.final581
dc.pagina.inicio568
dc.revistaMicrobial ecology
dc.rightsacceso restringido
dc.subject.ods15 Life on Land
dc.subject.odspa15 Vida de ecosistemas terrestres
dc.titleHypolithic Cyanobacteria Supported Mainly by Fog in the Coastal Range of the Atacama Desert
dc.typeartículo
dc.volumen61
sipa.indexWOS
sipa.trazabilidadWOS;2025-01-12
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