Atacama Life Vida en Atacama

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Atacama LifeVida en Atacama

• Chris McKay Maite Trujillo
• NASA Ames
• cmckay_at_mail.arc.nasa.gov
• mtrujillo_at_mail.arc.nasa.gov

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A transect from arid to extreme arid
Yungay station, extreme arid 50 times drier than
Death Valley
500 km south of Yungay, arid about as dry as
Death Valley
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Colonized Stones in the Atacama Desert
Warren-Rhodes et al. Micro. Ecol. 2005
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Crestline for the coastal range in the Atacama
Desert
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Rock garden
Altamira

• Vineyard

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Desert ecosystems
Biology wins reducing
Photochemistry wins, oxidizing
Shrubs and insects
Hypolithic algae
Life
Soil Bacteria
Mojave Desert
Mars-like soils
Gobi Desert
Nitrate deposits
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25
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125
0.2
Moisture mm/yr
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Bacterial Counts
Moisture
BiologyOxidant
BiologygtOxidant
BiologyltOxidant
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Implications

• Length scale of patchiness should vary with
  moisture.
• Soil organics will be patchy and correlate with
  soil organisms.
• Soil oxidant will be patchy and anti-correlated
  with organisms.