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First Major Rain in Centuries Triggers Wave of Death in Earth's Driest Desert
After not experiencing any meaningful amounts of precipitation for at least 500 years, Chile’s Atacama Desert is finally getting some rain. Quite unexpectedly, however, these rains—instead of fostering life—are doing the exact opposite.
[...] The unprecedented rains, the authors say, are the result of changing climatic conditions over the Pacific Ocean. An extensive “mass of clouds” came to the desert from the Pacific Ocean—an “unprecedented phenomenon,” the researchers say, that occurred twice in three years.
The resulting precipitation resulted in the widespread extinction of many native microbial species. The local extinction rate, according to the new study, reached as high as 85 percent in the hardest-hit places. Extremophile organisms, accustomed to arid conditions, were unable to cope with the influx of water.
“The hyperdry soils before the rains were inhabited by up to 16 different, ancient microbe species,” said Alberto G. Fairén, an astrobiologist at Cornell and a co-author of the new study, in a statement. “After it rained, there were only two to four microbe species found in the lagoons,” said Fairen, who is also a researcher with the Centro de Astrobiología, Madrid. “The extinction event was massive.”
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Spamalope on Sunday November 18 2018, @01:23PM (3 children)
Yes! It seems unlikely that the microbes made it millions of years but don't have a strategy to handle rain on a world whose surface is more water than not.
I bet you'll find several strategies being employed. I bet some will infiltrate the soil with at least part of the population, and some will use a cyst like structure. Dry spells seem like a great trigger too. If they didn't desiccate their samples how can they be sure none of the microbes in the water are viable? If they only checked for reproduction while wet they've not really checked for life. Extremophiles aren't so easy to kill as that usually.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Sunday November 18 2018, @01:29PM (1 child)
Maybe microbes evolve so quickly to adapt to a new environment that they don't need to survive unexpected rainfall. New microbes will come in to fill the slightly wetter environment, and those will be replaced by microbes adapted to the bone-dry environment. And so on.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 18 2018, @07:14PM
Counting number of species doesnt make sense at the microbial level, the grouping is basically totally arbitrary. So the very premise for this study is flawed.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1764935/ [nih.gov]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 21 2018, @02:03AM
I just exterminated a head full of lice, I'm sure they'll come back. I have got to stop giving hugs to the kid. They're disgusting pest carriers.