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@ARTICLE{Knief:887701,
author = {Knief, Claudia and Bol, Roland and Amelung, Wulf and Kusch,
Stephanie and Frindte, Katharina and Eckmeier, Eileen and
Jaeschke, Andrea and Dunai, Tibor and Fuentes, Barbara and
Mörchen, Ramona and Schütte, Tanja and Lücke, Andreas and
Klumpp, Erwin and Kaiser, Klaus and Rethemeyer, Janet},
title = {{T}racing elevational changes in microbial life and organic
carbon sources in soils of the {A}tacama {D}esert},
journal = {Global and planetary change},
volume = {184},
issn = {0921-8181},
address = {Amsterdam [u.a.]},
publisher = {Elsevier Science},
reportid = {FZJ-2020-04358},
pages = {103078 -},
year = {2020},
abstract = {The Atacama Desert frequently serves as model system for
tracing life under extremely dry conditions. We hypothesized
that traces of life in the Atacama Desert follow distinct
micro- and macro-scale gradients such as soil depth and
elevation, respectively. Different depth intervals of
surface soils (0–1, 1–5, and 5–10 cm) were sampled
at five sites along an elevational transect near the
Quebrada Aroma, spanning from the hyperarid core of the
desert towards the arid Western Andean Precordillera (1300
to 2700 m a.s.l.), and from one additional site in the
hyperarid core near Yungay. We determined the contents of
major elements, pedogenic minerals and oxides, organic
carbon (OC), and its δ13C and δ15N isotopic composition.
The presence of living microorganisms was assessed by
cultivation, and bacterial community composition was
analyzed based on 16S rRNA gene sequencing. Additional
information about past and present plant and microbial life
was obtained from lipid biomarker analysis. We did not
detect consistent micro-scale distributions for most of
these proxies within the soils. However, concentrations of
OC and of long-chain, plant wax-derived n-alkanes increased
in soils along the aridity gradient towards the wetter
sites, indicating the presence of past life at places
presently not covered by vegetation. Likewise, bacterial
abundance and diversity decreased as hyperaridity increased
and the microbial community composition changed along the
transect, becoming enriched in Actinobacteria. The
distributional patterns of phospholipid fatty acids (PLFAs)
confirmed the larger bacterial diversity at the higher, more
humid sites compared to the drier ones. Archaeal isoprenoid
glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers (isoGDGTs) and
bacterial branched (br)GDGTs, which can also indicate past
life, did not follow a clear elevational trend and were
absent at the driest site. Taken together, plant-derived and
microbiological markers follow primarily the macro-scaled
elevation and aridity gradient. Viable bacteria are present
even at the driest sites, while detected biomolecules also
indicate past life. The detection of past plant life in
nowadays apparently lifeless regions suggests that
conditions for life were less hostile in former times.},
cin = {IBG-3},
ddc = {550},
cid = {I:(DE-Juel1)IBG-3-20101118},
pnm = {255 - Terrestrial Systems: From Observation to Prediction
(POF3-255)},
pid = {G:(DE-HGF)POF3-255},
typ = {PUB:(DE-HGF)16},
UT = {WOS:000508491500030},
doi = {10.1016/j.gloplacha.2019.103078},
url = {https://juser.fz-juelich.de/record/887701},
}