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Insights of Extreme Desert Ecology to the Habitats and Habitability of Mars

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Microbiology of Hot Deserts

Part of the book series: Ecological Studies ((ECOLSTUD,volume 244))

Abstract

Desert ecosystems are a key repository for important Mars analog habitats and the extant or extinct life within them. We provide an overview of four main desert habitat types—soils, sediments, salts, and rocks—and the extreme microbiology living within them, with a particular focus on the hyperarid Atacama Desert and Dry Valleys of Antarctica, the driest and coldest limits for life on Earth. We construct habitat maps of Mars from an ecological perspective and the first estimates of study sample sizes of key habitats from historical and recent Mars orbiter and lander imagery and data. We review the lessons that can be drawn for the search for life on Mars from decades of microbial ecology work in end-member terrestrial deserts.

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Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully appreciate access to the data and insights for the Curiosity samples at Gale Crater from Ashwin Vasavada, Brad Sutter, and David Blake. We also kindly thank Stephen B. Pointing, Stephen Archer, Mary Beth Wilhelm, Chris Greening, and Charles Cockell for sharing their technical expertise on various aspects of the chapter.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA, USA

    K. Warren-Rhodes, A. Davila & C. P. McKay

  2. SETI Institute, Science Council, Mountain View, CA, USA

    K. Warren-Rhodes

  3. Johns Hopkins, Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, MD, USA

    M. Phillips

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Correspondence to K. Warren-Rhodes .

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  1. Departamento de Genética Molecular y Microbiología, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile

    Jean-Baptiste Ramond

  2. Centre for Microbial Ecology and Genomics - Department of Biochemistry, Genetics and Microbiology, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa

    Don A. Cowan

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Warren-Rhodes, K., Phillips, M., Davila, A., McKay, C.P. (2022). Insights of Extreme Desert Ecology to the Habitats and Habitability of Mars. In: Ramond, JB., Cowan, D.A. (eds) Microbiology of Hot Deserts. Ecological Studies, vol 244. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-98415-1_9

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