Microbial and Geochemical Diversity of Laguna Timone, an Extreme Hypersaline Crater Lake in Patagonia (52° S)

Carolina Henríquez; José M. Pérez-Donoso; Nicolás Bruna; CALDERON NETTLE, MAURICIO ROBERTO; Leonardo Fadel Cury; Paulo Quezada; Gustavo Athayde; Poldie Oyarzún; Anelize Bahniuk

doi:10.3390/microorganisms13081957

Microbial and Geochemical Diversity of Laguna Timone, an Extreme Hypersaline Crater Lake in Patagonia (52° S)

Journal

Microorganisms

ISSN

2076-2607

Date Issued

2025-08-21

Author(s)

Carolina Henríquez

José M. Pérez-Donoso

Nicolás Bruna

CALDERON NETTLE, MAURICIO ROBERTO

Facultad de Ingeniería

Leonardo Fadel Cury

Paulo Quezada

Gustavo Athayde

Poldie Oyarzún

Anelize Bahniuk

Type

journal-article

DOI

10.3390/microorganisms13081957

URL

https://hdl.handle.net/123456789/11466

Abstract

Extreme environments, such as hypersaline habitats, hot springs, deep-sea hydrothermal vents, glaciers, and permafrost, provide diverse ecological niches for studying microbial evolution. However, knowledge of microbial communities in extreme environments at high southern latitudes remains limited, aside from Antarctica. Laguna Timone is a hypersaline crater lake located in a Pleistocene maar of the Pali Aike Volcanic Field, southern Patagonia; the lake was formed during basaltic eruptions in a periglacial setting. Here, we report the first integrative characterization of microbial communities from biofilms and microbial mats in this lake using high-throughput 16S rRNA and ITS gene sequencing, along with mineralogical and hydrochemical analyses of water, sediments, and carbonates. Bacterial communities were dominated by the genera Enterobacterales ASV1, Pseudomonas, Oscillatoria, Nodularia, and Belliella, with site-specific assemblages. Fungal communities included Laetinaevia, Ilyonectria, Thelebolus, Plectosphaerella, and Acrostalagmus, each showing distinct distribution patterns. These baseline data contribute to understanding microbial dynamics in hypersaline maar environments and support future investigations. This integrative approach highlights key microbe–mineral relationships and underscores the potential of Laguna Timone as a natural laboratory for exploring biosignature formation and microbial adaptation in chemically extreme environments, both on early Earth and potentially beyond.

Cite this document

Henríquez, C., Pérez-Donoso, J. M., Bruna, N., Calderón, M., Cury, L. F., Quezada, P., Athayde, G., Oyarzún, P., & Bahniuk, A. (2025). Microbial and geochemical diversity of laguna timone, an extreme hypersaline crater lake in patagonia(52° s). Microorganisms, 13(8), 1957. https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms13081957