ArticleMicrobial ecology2011
Hypolithic cyanobacteria supported mainly by fog in the coastal range of the Atacama Desert.
Article in Microbial ecology, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 41 papers.
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Who cites it
41 citing papers in PubMed.
- Fog, Symbiosis, and Survival: The Ecological Architecture of the Grit Crust From the Atacama Desert Represents a Lichen Holobiome Rather Than a Soil Microbiome.Environmental microbiology · 2026Article
- An Atacama subsurface tephra layer reveals how life colonized Kenorland in the Neoarchean.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- The Desert in Bottles: The Culturable Microbiome of the Atacama Desert's Grit Crust.Environmental microbiology reports · 2025Article
- Vapor flux induced by temperature gradient is responsible for providing liquid water to hypoliths.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Kinetics and pathways of sub-lithic microbial community (hypolithon) development.Environmental microbiology reports · 2024Article
- Metabolic versatility of soil microbial communities below the rocks of the hyperarid Dalangtan Playa.Applied and environmental microbiology · 2023Article
- Tillandsia landbeckii phyllosphere and laimosphere as refugia for bacterial life in a hyperarid desert environment.Microbiome · 2023Article
- Unveiling metabolic pathways involved in the extreme desiccation tolerance of an Atacama cyanobacterium.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- 'Follow the Water': Microbial Water Acquisition in Desert Soils.Microorganisms · 2023Review
- The Distribution and Influencing Factors of Hypolithic Microbial Communities in the Hexi Corridor.Microorganisms · 2023Article
- Seasonal Variation of Hypolithic Microbiomes in the Gobi Desert : Seasonal Variation of Hypolithic Microbiomes in the Gobi Desert.Microbial ecology · 2023Article
- Dark microbiome and extremely low organics in Atacama fossil delta unveil Mars life detection limits.Nature communications · 2023Article
- Microbial Biogeochemical Cycling of Nitrogen in Arid Ecosystems.Microbiology and molecular biology reviews : MMBR · 2022Review
- Lipid Profiles From Fresh Biofilms Along a Temperature Gradient on a Hydrothermal Stream at El Tatio (Chilean Andes), as a Proxy for the Interpretation of Past and Present Biomarkers Beyond Earth.Frontiers in microbiology · 2022Article
- The Atacama Desert: A Biodiversity Hotspot and Not Just a Mineral-Rich Region.Frontiers in microbiology · 2022Article
- Leave no stone unturned: individually adapted xerotolerant Thaumarchaeota sheltered below the boulders of the Atacama Desert hyperarid core.Microbiome · 2021Article
- Microbial Hotspots in Lithic Microhabitats Inferred from DNA Fractionation and Metagenomics in the Atacama Desert.Microorganisms · 2021Article
- Article
- Metagenomics of Atacama Lithobiontic Extremophile Life Unveils Highlights on Fungal Communities, Biogeochemical Cycles and Carbohydrate-Active Enzymes.Microorganisms · 2019Article
- Nitrates as a Potential N Supply for Microbial Ecosystems in a Hyperarid Mars Analog System.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2019Article
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Authors and funding
7 authors.
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No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The 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 ~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.
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