ROCKEATERS: Data from rocks colonized by free-living microorganisms and symbiotic associations, Juan Carlos I, Isla Livingston, 2024

Microorganisms can colonize and modify any known environment due to their extremely wide and versatile metabolism and their capacity to transform the colonized substrate. Rocks from polar regions are colonized by free-living microorganisms and symbiotic associations such as lichens, constituting the most important, and sometimes the only, habitat for terrestrial life in those environments. The colonization of the lithic substrate involves and is favored by mineral transformations resulting from synergic biogeophysical and
biogeochemical actions that induce rock bioweathering. We hypothesize that the mutual affinity between biotic and abiotic components could play an active role in rock weathering, nutrient cycling, and soil-forming processes, affecting the function and temporal evolution of terrestrial polar ecosystems at a greater scale. The main objective of this project is to investigate the specificity of microbial-mineral
interactions involved and the biological and geochemical drivers of these processes in order to define their effect at broader scales. This will be accomplished by means of state-of-the-art (sub)micron scale analytical strategies (i.e. microscopy coupled with experimental spectroscopic analytical techniques) combined with next-generation sequencing methods (metabarcoding and metagenomics) for describing the taxonomic and functional diversity involved.