RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Modern microbial mats from the Chihuahuan Desert provide insights into ecological stability throughout Earth’s history
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 2021.11.18.469043
DO 10.1101/2021.11.18.469043
A1 David Madrigal-Trejo
A1 Jazmín Sánchez-Pérez
A1 Laura Espinosa-Asuar
A1 Valeria Souza
YR 2021
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/11/21/2021.11.18.469043.abstract
AB Microbial mats are complex ecological assemblages that are found in the Precambrian fossil record and in extant extreme environments. Hence, these structures are regarded as highly stable ecosystems. In this work, we assess the ecological stability in a modern, fluctuating, hypersaline pond from the Cuatro Ciénegas Basin. From the 2016 to 2019 metagenomic sampling of this site, we found that this microbial site is sensitive to disturbances, which leads to high taxonomic replacement. Additionally, the mats have shown to be functionally stable throughout time, and could be differentiated between dry and rainy seasonal states. We speculate that this microbial system could represent modern analogs of ancient microbial mats where functions were preserved over time, whereas composition was subject to diversification in the face of local and planetary perturbations.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.