Lonar Lake is a hypersaline and hyperalkaline soda lake and the only meteorite impact crater in the world situated in basalt rocks. Although culture-dependent studies have been reported, a comprehensive understanding of microbial community composition and structure in Lonar Lake remains elusive. In the present study, microbial community structure associated with Lonar Lake sediment and water sa...

Life can persist under severe osmotic stress and low water activity in hypersaline environments. On Mars, evidence for the past presence of saline bodies of water is prevalent and resulted in the widespread deposition of sulfate and chloride salts. Here we investigate Spotted Lake (British Columbia, Canada), a hypersaline lake with extreme (>3 M) levels of sulfate salts as an exemplar of the co...

Genes for two enzymes of the tetrahydromethanopterin-linked C(1) transfer pathway (fae and fhcD) were detected in hypersaline, hyperalkaline Mono Lake (California), via PCR amplification and analysis. Low diversity for fae and fhcD was noted, in contrast to the diversity previously detected in a freshwater lake, Lake Washington (Washington).

It is widely accepted that biodiversity is lower in more extreme environments. In this study, we sought to determine whether this trend, well documented for macroorganisms, also holds at the microbial level for bacteria. We used denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) with phylum-specific primers to quantify the taxon richness (i.e., the DGGE band numbers) of the bacterioplankton communi...

Abstract The Urmia Lake National Park (NW Iran) represents a unique ecosystem owing to special ecological conditions prevailing the region. The Urmia Lake National Park comprises a range of normal to extreme environments, with variable range of salinity between 120-300 g/L. The present study was aimed to characterize ascomycetous yeast mycobiota inhabiting hypersaline soils in this region. Soi...

Iran Urmia Lake, the world second largest hypersaline lake, has been largely desiccated over the last two decades resulting in socio-environmental consequences similar or even larger than the Aral Sea disaster. To rescue the lake a new water management plan has been proposed, a rapid 40% decline in irrigation water use replacing a former plan which intended to develop reservoirs and irrigation....

In the present study, nine species of Aspergillus, viz., A. alliaceus, A. ochraceus, A. persii, A. leproris, A. parasiticus, A. fumigatiaffinis, A. sydowii, A. niger, A. tubingensis and Eurotium amstelodami were obtained and identified from soils of the National Park of Urmia Lake, based on cultural and morphological characteristics. All of the species are newly recorded from hypersaline soils ...

Here we investigated whether there is evidence of local adaptation in strains of an ancestrally marine dinoflagellate to the lacustrine environment they now inhabit (optimal genotypes) and/or if they have evolved phenotypic plasticity (a range of phenotypes). Eleven strains of Polarella glacialis were isolated and cultured from three different environments: the polar seas, a hyposaline and a hy...

Bacteriophages, as the most abundant biological entities on Earth, place significant predation pressure on their hosts. This pressure plays a critical role in the evolution, diversity, and abundance of bacteria. In addition, phages modulate the genetic diversity of prokaryotic communities through the transfer of auxiliary metabolic genes. Various studies have been conducted in diverse ecosystem...

BENFER, N.P., KING, B.A. and LEMCKERT, C.J., 2007. Salinity observations in a subtropical estuarine system on the Gold Coast, Australia. Journal of Coastal Research, SI 50 (Proceedings of the 9th International Coastal Symposium), 646 – 651. Gold Coast, Australia, ISSN 0749.0208 Saltwater Creek and Coombabah Creek are branches of the Coomera River estuary situated within the subtropical Gold Coa...