Victor Parro, Fernando Puente-Sánchez, Nathalie A Cabrol, Ignacio Gallardo-Carreño, Mercedes Moreno-Paz, Yolanda Blanco, Miriam García-Villadangos, Cristian Tambley, Virginie C Tilot, Cody Thompson, Eric Smith, Pablo Sobrón, Cecilia S Demergasso, Alex Echeverría-Vega, Miguel Ángel Fernández-Martínez, Lyle G Whyte, Alberto G Fairén
Potential benthic habitats of early Mars lakes, probably oligotrophic, could range from hydrothermal to cold sediments. Dynamic processes in the water column (such as turbidity or UV penetration) as well as in the benthic bed (temperature gradients, turbation, or sedimentation rate) contribute to supply nutrients to a potential microbial ecosystem. High altitude, oligotrophic, and deep Andean lakes with active deglaciation processes and recent or past volcanic activity are natural models to assess the feasibility of life in other planetary lake/ocean environments and to develop technology for their exploration...
2019: Frontiers in Microbiology