The symbiotic alga Trebouxia fuels a coherent soil ecosystem on the landscape scale in the Atacama Desert.

ABSTRACT: Biocrusts represent associations of lichens, green algae, cyanobacteria, fungi and other microorganisms, colonizing soils in varying proportions of principally arid biomes. The so-called grit crust represents a recently discovered type of biocrust situated in the Coastal Range of the Atacama Desert (Chile) made of microorganisms growing on and in granitoid pebbles, resulting in a checkerboard pattern visible to the naked eye on the landscape scale. This specific microbiome fulfills a broad range of ecosystem services, all probably driven by fog and dew-induced photosynthetic activity of mainly micro-lichens. To understand its biodiversity and impact, we applied a polyphasic approach on the phototrophic microbiome of this biocrust, combining isolation and characterization of the lichen phot

SUBMITTER: Jung P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11311966 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature