ArticleFrontiers in microbiology2019
Subsurface Microbial Habitats in an Extreme Desert Mars-Analog Environment.
Article in Frontiers in microbiology, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 23 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
23 citing papers in PubMed.
- Extreme Arabian environments and their microbiomes: new frontiers for astrobiology and biosignature discovery.Extremophiles : life under extreme conditions · 2026Review
- Article
- Characterization of bacterial diversity associated with a Salar de Atacama native plant Nitrophila atacamensis.Environmental microbiome · 2025Article
- Plant species-specific rhizobiome assembly in the hyper-arid Atacama Desert.Frontiers in microbiology · 2025Article
- Inside the Atacama Desert: uncovering the living microbiome of an extreme environment.Applied and environmental microbiology · 2024Article
- Distinct Bacterial Communities Within the Nonrhizosphere, Rhizosphere, and Endosphere of Ammodendron bifolium Under Winter Condition in the Takeermohuer Desert.Microbial ecology · 2024Article
- Persistent microbial communities in hyperarid subsurface habitats of the Atacama Desert: Insights from intracellular DNA analysis.PNAS nexus · 2024Article
- Prevalence of trace gas-oxidizing soil bacteria increases with radial distance from Polloquere hot spring within a high-elevation Andean cold desert.The ISME journal · 2024Article
- Article
- Article
- The Atacama Rover Astrobiology Drilling Studies (ARADS) Project.Astrobiology · 2023Article
- 'Follow the Water': Microbial Water Acquisition in Desert Soils.Microorganisms · 2023Review
- Hyperarid soil microbial community response to simulated rainfall.Frontiers in microbiology · 2023Article
- The Atacama Desert: A Biodiversity Hotspot and Not Just a Mineral-Rich Region.Frontiers in microbiology · 2022Article
- Exobiology of the Venusian Clouds: New Insights into Habitability through Terrestrial Models and Methods of Detection.Astrobiology · 2021Article
- Spatial Variability of Microbial Communities and Salt Distributions Across a Latitudinal Aridity Gradient in the Atacama Desert.Microbial ecology · 2021Article
- Bacterial Communities in Concrete Reflect Its Composite Nature and Change with Weathering.mSystems · 2021Article
- Martian subsurface cryosalt expansion and collapse as trigger for landslides.Science advances · 2021Article
- Influence of Physical-Chemical Soil Parameters on Microbiota Composition and Diversity in a Deep Hyperarid Core of the Atacama Desert.Frontiers in microbiology · 2021Article
- Inhabited subsurface wet smectites in the hyperarid core of the Atacama Desert as an analog for the search for life on Mars.Scientific reports · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Sediments in the hyper-arid core of the Atacama Desert are a terrestrial analog to Mars regolith. Understanding the distribution and drivers of microbial life in the sediment may give critical clues on how to search for biosignatures on Mars. Here, we identify the spatial distribution of highly specialized bacterial communities in previously unexplored depth horizons of subsurface sediments to a depth of 800 mm. We deployed an autonomous rover in a mission-relevant Martian drilling scenario with manual sample validation. Subsurface communities were delineated by depth related to sediment moisture. Geochemical analysis indicated soluble salts and minerology that influenced water bio-availability, particularly in deeper sediments. Colonization was also patchy and uncolonized sediment was associated with indicators of extreme osmotic challenge. The study identifies linkage between biocomplexity, moisture and geochemistry in Mars-like sediments at the limit of habitability and demonstrates feasibility of the rover-mounted drill for future Mars sample recovery.
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