ArticleAstrobiology2021
Water Activities of Acid Brine Lakes Approach the Limit for Life.
Article in Astrobiology, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers.
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Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed, 38 citations in OpenAlex.
- Growth of microorganisms in a Martian regolith simulant at reduced water activity.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Extremophilic and common fungi in acid brines and their halite.Extremophiles : life under extreme conditions · 2025Article
- Lake morphology and meteorological conditions impact stratification of saline lakes in the Atacama Desert.PloS one · 2025Article
- Biosignature Molecules Accumulate and Persist in Evaporitic Brines: Implications for Planetary Exploration.Astrobiology · 2024Article
- Active prokaryotic and eukaryotic viral ecology across spatial scale in a deep-sea brine pool.ISME communications · 2024Article
- Nanohaloarchaea as beneficiaries of xylan degradation by haloarchaea.Microbial biotechnology · 2023Article
- Modes-of-action of antifungal compounds: Stressors and (target-site-specific) toxins, toxicants, or toxin-stressors.Microbial biotechnology · 2023Review
- Scientific novelty beyond the experiment.Microbial biotechnology · 2023Article
- Editorial: Anaerobic Microorganisms on Mars 2.0.Microorganisms · 2023Article
- Article
- Genome-guided prediction of acid resistance mechanisms in acidophilic methanotrophs of phylogenetically deep-rooted Verrucomicrobia isolated from geothermal environments.Frontiers in microbiology · 2022Article
- A Large-Scale Genome-Based Survey of Acidophilic Bacteria Suggests That Genome Streamlining Is an Adaption for Life at Low pH.Frontiers in microbiology · 2022Article
- Water is a preservative of microbes.Microbial biotechnology · 2022Article
- A Large-Scale Multiple Genome Comparison of Acidophilic Archaea (pH ≤ 5.0) Extends Our Understanding of Oxidative Stress Responses in Polyextreme Environments.Antioxidants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Article
- Water-Sulfuric Acid Foam as a Possible Habitat for Hypothetical Microbial Community in the Cloud Layer of Venus.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Water activity is an important characteristic for describing unusual waters and is a determinant of habitability for microorganisms. However, few empirical studies of water activity have been done for natural waters exhibiting an extreme chemistry. Here, we investigate water activity for acid brines from Western Australia and Chile with pH as low as 1.4, salinities as high as 32% total dissolved solids, and complex chemical compositions. These acid brines host diverse communities of extremophilic microorganisms, including archaea, bacteria, algae, and fungi, according to metagenomic analyses. For the most extreme brine, its water activity (0.714) was considerably lower than that of saturated (pure) NaCl brine. This study provides a thermodynamic insight into life within end-member natural waters that lie at, or possibly beyond, the very edge of habitable space on Earth.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.