Composition and function of bacterial community in spouting pool sediments from the El Tatio Geyser in the Atacama Desert of Chile

Hydrothermal environments (e.g., geysers and hot springs) are important for understanding biogeochemical processes, act as sources of energy, and provide insight into the origin of life on the Earth. While ‘El Tatio’ (Atacama Desert, Chile), located in the Andes Mountains in Northern Chile at 4,320 meters, is the main geyser field in the southern hemisphere, its microbial ecology remains unknown. Here, we briefly report on the composition and function of the bacterial communities present in the El Tatio geyser field (ETGF) as revealed by high-throughput sequencing of 16S rRNA genes. Results of sequencing three sediment samples taken from spouting pools in showed differences in the richness and diversity of bacterial communities between the samples, where the bacterial communities were dominated by members of phyla Proteobacteria, followed Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes, Acidobacteria, and Chloroflexi. Despite this, a low number of operational taxonomic units (OTUs) were shared between the samples. Analyses of potential activity indicated that the microbes in this environment had functions mostly attributed to chemoheterotrophy and aerobic chemoheterotrophy, followed by functions associated with sulfur (respiration of sulfur compounds and sulfate) and nitrogen (nitrate reduction, respiration of nitrogen and nitrate) cycling. Taken together, our results reveal unexpectedly high diversity in taxonomy and functions of bacterial communities in thermal sediments from spouting pools. This information can be used to help guide bioprospecting of novel sources of bioenergy and for novel enzyme technologies, as well as the design of sustainable conservation strategies because ETGF is intensively visited and impacted by tens of thousands of tourists every year.