Fog controls biological cycling of soil phosphorus in the Coastal Cordillera of the Atacama Desert

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Title:Main Title: Fog controls biological cycling of soil phosphorus in the Coastal Cordillera of the Atacama Desert
Description:Abstract: Soils in hyper-arid climates, such as the Chilean Atacama Desert, show indications of past and present forms of life despite extreme water limitations. We hypothesize that fog plays a key role in sustaining life. In particular, we assume that fog water is incorporated into soil nutrient cycles, with the inland limit of fog penetration corresponding to the threshold for biological cycling of soil phosphorus (P). We collected topsoil samples (0–10 cm) from each of 54 subsites, including sites in direct adjacency (<10 cm) and in 1 m distance to plants, along an aridity gradient across the Coastal Cordillera. Satellite-based fog detection revealed that Pacific fog penetrates up to 10 km inland, while inland sites at 10–23 km from the coast rely solely on sporadic rainfall for water supply. To assess biological P cycling we performed sequential P fractionation and determined oxygen isotope of HCl-extractable inorganic P (δ18O_HCl-Pi). Total P (Pt) concentration exponentially increased from 336 mg kg^−1 to a maximum of 1021 mg kg^−1 in inland areas ≥10 km. With increasing distance from the coast, soil δ18O_HCl-Pi values declined exponentially from 16.6‰ to a constant 9.9‰ for locations ≥10 km inland. Biological cycling of HCl-Pi near the coast reached a maximum of 76%–100%, which could only be explained by the fact that fog water predominately drives biological P cycling. In inland regions, with minimal rainfall (<5 mm) as single water source, only 24 ± 14% of HCl-Pi was biologically cycled. We conclude that biological P cycling in the hyper-arid Atacama Desert is not exclusively but mainly mediated by fog, which thus controls apatite dissolution rates and related occurrence and spread of microbial life in this extreme environment.
Identifier:10.1111/gcb.17068 (DOI)
Responsible Party
Creators:Xiaolei Sun (Author), Wulf Amelung (Author), Erwin Klumpp (Author), Janek Walk (Author), Ramona Mörchen (Author), Christoph Böhm (Author), Ghazal Moradi (Author), Matthias May (Author), Federica Tamburini (Author), Ye Wang (Author), Roland Bol (Author)
Funding Reference:Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG): CRC 1211: Earth - Evolution at the Dry Limit
Publisher:Wiley
Publication Year:2023
Topic
CRC1211 Topic:Biology
Related Subprojects:C2, B5, A1, C3, Z3
Subjects:Keywords: Biogeochemistry of Soils, Soil Sciences, Fog, Stable Isotope Geochemistry, Satellite remote sensing, Arid Zone
Geogr. Information Topic:Environment
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Filename:Sun_et_al_2023_Fog_controls_biological_cycling_of_soil_phosphorus_Coastal_Cordillera_Atacama_Desert_GCB_30_e17068.pdf
Data Type:Text - Article
Size:19 Pages
File Size:25.2 MB
Date:Available: 08.12.2023
Mime Type:application/pdf
Data Format:PDF
Language:English
Status:Completed
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Download Permission:Free
Download Information:This file contains the article published in Global Change Biology, Volume 30 (2024).
General Access and Use Conditions:According to the CRC1211DB data policy agreement. © 2023 The Authors. Global Change Biology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Access Limitations:According to the CRC1211DB data policy agreement. © 2023 The Authors. Global Change Biology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Licence:[Creative Commons] Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 Unported (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)
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Publication Status:Published
Review Status:Peer reviewed
Publication Type:Article
Article Type:Journal
Source:Global Change Biology
Source Website:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/13652486
Issue:1
Volume:30:e17068
Number of Pages:19 (1 - 19)
Metadata Details
Metadata Creator:Janek Walk
Metadata Created:09.12.2023
Metadata Last Updated:09.12.2023
Subproject:C2
Funding Phase:2
Metadata Language:English
Metadata Version:V50
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