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      Microbial Communities in Sediments From Four Mildly Acidic Ephemeral Salt Lakes in the Yilgarn Craton (Australia) – Terrestrial Analogs to Ancient Mars

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          Abstract

          The Yilgarn Craton in Australia has a large number of naturally occurring shallow ephemeral lakes underlain by a dendritic system of paleodrainage channels. Processes like evaporation, flooding, erosion, as well as inflow of saline, often acidic and ion-rich groundwater contribute to the (dynamic) nature of the lakes and the composition of the sediments. The region has previously been described as an analog environment for early Mars due to its geological and geophysical similarities. Here, we investigated sediment samples of four lake environments aimed at getting a fundamental understanding of the native microbial communities and the mineralogical and (bio)chemical composition of the sediments they are associated with. The dominant mineral phases in the sediments were quartz, feldspars and amphiboles, while halite and gypsum were the only evaporites detected. Element analysis revealed a rich and complex image, in which silicon, iron, and aluminum were the dominant ions, but relative high concentrations of trace elements such as strontium, chromium, zirconium, and barium were also found. The concentrations of organic carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus were generally low. 16S amplicon sequencing on the Illumina platform showed the presence of diverse microbial communities in all four lake environments. We found that most of the communities were dominated by extremely halophilic Archaea of the Halobacteriaceae family. The dynamic nature of these lakes appears to influence the biological, biochemical, and geological components of the ecosystem to a large effect. Inter- and intra-lake variations in the distributions of microbial communities were significant, and could only to a minor degree be explained by underlying environmental conditions. The communities are likely significantly influenced by small scale local effects caused by variations in geological settings and dynamic interactions caused by aeolian transport and flooding and evaporation events.

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          Global patterns of 16S rRNA diversity at a depth of millions of sequences per sample.

          The ongoing revolution in high-throughput sequencing continues to democratize the ability of small groups of investigators to map the microbial component of the biosphere. In particular, the coevolution of new sequencing platforms and new software tools allows data acquisition and analysis on an unprecedented scale. Here we report the next stage in this coevolutionary arms race, using the Illumina GAIIx platform to sequence a diverse array of 25 environmental samples and three known "mock communities" at a depth averaging 3.1 million reads per sample. We demonstrate excellent consistency in taxonomic recovery and recapture diversity patterns that were previously reported on the basis of metaanalysis of many studies from the literature (notably, the saline/nonsaline split in environmental samples and the split between host-associated and free-living communities). We also demonstrate that 2,000 Illumina single-end reads are sufficient to recapture the same relationships among samples that we observe with the full dataset. The results thus open up the possibility of conducting large-scale studies analyzing thousands of samples simultaneously to survey microbial communities at an unprecedented spatial and temporal resolution.
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            Global analysis of nitrogen and phosphorus limitation of primary producers in freshwater, marine and terrestrial ecosystems.

            The cycles of the key nutrient elements nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) have been massively altered by anthropogenic activities. Thus, it is essential to understand how photosynthetic production across diverse ecosystems is, or is not, limited by N and P. Via a large-scale meta-analysis of experimental enrichments, we show that P limitation is equally strong across these major habitats and that N and P limitation are equivalent within both terrestrial and freshwater systems. Furthermore, simultaneous N and P enrichment produces strongly positive synergistic responses in all three environments. Thus, contrary to some prevailing paradigms, freshwater, marine and terrestrial ecosystems are surprisingly similar in terms of N and P limitation.
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              Global mineralogical and aqueous mars history derived from OMEGA/Mars Express data.

              Global mineralogical mapping of Mars by the Observatoire pour la Mineralogie, l'Eau, les Glaces et l'Activité (OMEGA) instrument on the European Space Agency's Mars Express spacecraft provides new information on Mars' geological and climatic history. Phyllosilicates formed by aqueous alteration very early in the planet's history (the "phyllocian" era) are found in the oldest terrains; sulfates were formed in a second era (the "theiikian" era) in an acidic environment. Beginning about 3.5 billion years ago, the last era (the "siderikian") is dominated by the formation of anhydrous ferric oxides in a slow superficial weathering, without liquid water playing a major role across the planet.
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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                Journal
                Front Microbiol
                Front Microbiol
                Front. Microbiol.
                Frontiers in Microbiology
                Frontiers Media S.A.
                1664-302X
                06 May 2019
                2019
                : 10
                : 779
                Affiliations
                [1] 1Department of Molecular Cell Biology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam , Amsterdam, Netherlands
                [2] 2Centre de Recherches Pétrographiques et Géochimiques, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique/Université de Lorraine , Vandœuvre-lès-Nancy, France
                [3] 3Department of Applied Geology, Curtin University , Perth, WA, Australia
                [4] 4Department of Earth Science and Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Imperial College London , London, United Kingdom
                [5] 5Leiden Observatory, Leiden University , Leiden, Netherlands
                [6] 6Space Policy Institute, Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University , Washington, DC, United States
                [7] 7Centro de Química-Física Molecular-Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (CQFM-IN), Institute for Bioengineering and Biosciences (iBB), Departamento de Engenharia Química, Instituto Superior Técnico (IST), Universidade de Lisboa , Lisbon, Portugal
                Author notes

                Edited by: Marjorie A. Chan, The University of Utah, United States

                Reviewed by: Melanie R. Mormile, Missouri University of Science and Technology, United States; Ronald Oremland, United States Geological Survey, United States; Jinjun Kan, Stroud Water Research Center, United States

                This article was submitted to Extreme Microbiology, a section of the journal Frontiers in Microbiology

                Article
                10.3389/fmicb.2019.00779
                6512757
                31133990
                e5b14e72-92e3-4827-8203-17bbadbaf5ea
                Copyright © 2019 Aerts, van Spanning, Flahaut, Molenaar, Bland, Genge, Ehrenfreund and Martins.

                This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

                History
                : 05 November 2018
                : 27 March 2019
                Page count
                Figures: 9, Tables: 4, Equations: 0, References: 78, Pages: 19, Words: 0
                Funding
                Funded by: Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek 10.13039/501100003246
                Funded by: Science and Technology Facilities Council 10.13039/501100000271
                Categories
                Microbiology
                Original Research

                Microbiology & Virology
                yilgarn craton,microbial communities,16s sequencing,halophiles,mars,geology
                Microbiology & Virology
                yilgarn craton, microbial communities, 16s sequencing, halophiles, mars, geology

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