Soils of the Atacama Desert: reservoir and fingerprint of life (B05+)

• Subject Area: Soil Sciences
• Term: from 2016 to 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 268236062

Our work in phase I has proved that in the Atacama Desert fingerprints of past life are preserved, as evidenced by hotspots of organic matter or microbial δ18OP transformation, which occur in most cases buried in subsurface. In the second phase, we hypothesize now that on; (i) the small-scale, traces of life are controlled by micro-relief, subsoil water storage and subsoil discontinuities (e.g. cracks and polygons formed in the gypsum desert), whereas (ii) on the large scale, traces of life are also influenced by fog and the degree of dust deposition. Altogether this enables us to consider what triggered and drives the evolution and dispersal of life on the landscape level as well as across the whole Atacama Desert.

• DFG Programme: Collaborative Research Centres
• Subproject of: SFB 1211: Earth - Evolution at the Dry Limit
• Major Instrumentation: Elementar analyser
• Instrumentation Group: 1510 Geräte zur Elementaranalyse
• Applicant Institution: Universität zu Köln
• Co-Applicant Institution: Forschungszentrum Jülich; Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn
• Project Heads: Professor Dr. Wulf Amelung; Professor Dr. Roland Bol; Professor Dr. Erwin Klumpp; Professorin Dr. Eva Lehndorff