Reasercher in charge:
An extreme environment is defined as those habitats that experience steady or fluctuating exposure to one or more environmental factors including salinity, high osmolarity, desiccation, high UV radiation, barometric pressure, extreme pH and temperature.
One such environment is the high andean altitude wetland (HAAW) ecosystems of the South American Andes
High Altitude Andean Wetlands (HAAW) is a system of shallow oligotrophic lakes originated in the tertiary age distributed across The Puna, the high plateau of the South American Andes from Bolivia to Argentina . These lakes are scattered throughout the region at altitudes varying from 3,600 to 4,600 meters . Microbial communities within these aquatic ecosystems are tolerant to wide fluctuations of environmental factors in addition to steady-state extreme conditions. Importantly, the HAAW ecosystems are totally unexplored with no access roads, which provide a unique opportunity to study the ecosystem interactions and responses to environmental stress. The HAAW constitutes a unique collection of simple wetland ecosystems where autotrophs, consisting of mainly bacteria, and zooplankton primarily composed of copepods and daphnias directly support the apex of the food web. L arge flocks of aquatic birds, primarily flamingos, feed upon the microbial community and are predated upon by foxes. These birds migrate only around these high altitude wetlands, which provide their only source of food (Cazziani et al 2002, Mascitti 2002) .
The microbial diversity of the described environments has been studied by Argentienan scientists Dr Farias group (PROIMI-CONICET Tucumán Argentine) have been working in microbiology of these environments, from 2002 and was able to create a strain collection of extremophile isolates These bacteria were isolated by their intrinsic resistances to UV, salinity, arsenic and antibiotic (Zenoff et al 2006, Fernandez-Zennof 2006, Flores et al 2007, Dib et al 2008). Sampling campaigns have been performed by this group in order to take samples, measured environmental conditions of these environments and carry out in situ experiments with solar radiation. We invite you to be part of these expeditions and help these scientists in exploring an untouched and incredible environment full of new discovers for science.
