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Athalassohaline lakes are inland saline aquatic environments with ionic proportions quite different from the dissolved salts in seawater. Prokaryotes inhabiting athalassohaline environments are poorly known and very few of such places have been surveyed for microbial diversity studies around the world. We analyzed the planktonic bacterial and archaeal assemblages inhabiting several of these evaporitic basins in a remote and vast area in northern Chile by PCR-denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) and sequencing of 16S rRNA gene fragments. Most systems were springs and athalassohaline ponds in different saltflats of the Atacama Desert region, including Salar de Llamará (in the Central Depression), Salar de Atacama (in the Pre-Andean Depression) and Salar de Ascotán (in the Altiplano). Overall, we analyzed more than 25 samples from 19 different environments with strong gradients of altitude, qualitative ionic compositions and UV influence. Between 4 and 25 well-defined DGGE bands were detected for Bacteria in each sample, whereas Archaea ranged between 1 and 5. Predominant DGGE bands (defined by intensity and frequency of appearance) were excised from the gel and sequenced. Bacterial assemblages were dominated by the Cytophaga-Flavobacterium-Bacteroides (CFB) phylum and a few Proteobacteria. There was a tendency for increasing contribution of CFB with higher salinities and altitude. Thus, CFB accounted for the major fraction of band intensity in the Ascotán samples and for lower percentages in Atacama and Llamará. When the distribution of particular CFB sequences was examined, there were several relatives of Psychroflexus torquis substituting each other as salinity changed in Ascotán. Another set of CFB sequences, very distantly related to Cytophaga marinovorus, was abundant in both Llamará and Atacama at salinities lower than 7%. Archaeal assemblages were dominated by uncultured haloarchaea distantly related to cultured strains mostly obtained from thalassohaline environments. Most of the archaeal sequences did not have a close match with environmental 16S rRNA genes deposited in the database either. Therefore, athalassohaline environments are excellent sources of new microorganisms different from their counterparts in thalassohaline sites and useful tools to relate microbial genetic diversity and environmental characteristics such as changes in salinity (both qualitative and quantitative) and altitude.

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Lake Tebenquiche is one of the largest saline water bodies in the Salar de Atacama at 2,500 m above sea level in northeastern Chile. Bacteria inhabiting there have to deal with extreme changes in salinity, temperature and UV dose (i.e., high environmental dissimilarity in the physical landscape). We analyzed the bacterioplankton structure of this lake by 16S rRNA gene analyses along a spatio-temporal survey. The bacterial assemblage within the lake was quite heterogeneous both in space and time. Salinity changed both in space and time ranging between 1 and 30% (w/v), and total abundances of planktonic prokaryotes in the different sampling points within the lake ranged between two and nine times 10(6) cells mL(-1). Community composition changed accordingly to the particular salinity of each point as depicted by genetic fingerprinting analyses (denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis), showing a high level of variation in species composition from place to place (beta-diversity). Three selected sites were analyzed in more detail by clone libraries. We observed a predominance of Bacteroidetes (about one third of the clones) and Gammaproteobacteria (another third) with respect to all the other bacterial groups. The diversity of Bacteroidetes sequences was large and showed a remarkable degree of novelty. Bacteroidetes formed at least four clusters with no cultured relatives in databases and rather distantly related to any known 16S rRNA sequence. Within this phylum, a rich and diverse presence of Salinibacter relatives was found in the saltiest part of the lake. Lake Tebenquiche included several novel microorganisms of environmental importance and appeared as a large unexplored reservoir of unknown bacteria.

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[1] A 400-km-long seismic reflection profile (Andean Continental Research Project 1996 (ANCORP'96)) and integrated geophysical experiments (wide-angle seismology, passive seismology, gravity, and magnetotelluric depth sounding) across the central Andes (21°S) observed subduction of the Nazca plate under the South American continent. An east dipping reflector (Nazca Reflector) is linked to the down going oceanic crust and shows increasing downdip intensity before gradual breakdown below 80 km. We interpret parts of the Nazca Reflector as a fluid trap located at the front of recent hydration and shearing of the mantle, the fluids being supplied by dehydration of the oceanic plate. Patches of bright (Quebrada Blanca Bright Spot) to more diffuse reflectivity underlie the plateau domain at 15-30 km depth. This reflectivity is associated with a low-velocity zone, P to S wave conversions, the upper limits of high conductivity and high V p /V s ratios, and to the occurrence of Neogene volcanic rocks at surface. We interpret this feature as evidence of widespread partial melting of the plateau crust causing decoupling of the upper and lower crust during Neogene shortening and plateau growth. The imaging properties of the continental Moho beneath the Andes indicate a broad transitional character of the crust-mantle boundary owing to active processes like hydration of mantle rocks (in the cooler parts of the plate margin system), magmatic underplating and intraplating under and into the lowermost crust, mechanical instability at Moho, etc. Hence all first-order features appear to be related to fluid-assisted processes in a subduction setting.