Microbial ecology of El Tatio terrestrial hot springs

Terrestrial hot springs are natural ecosystems that host an enormous diversity of microorganisms that survive in extreme conditions. The water chemistry of these systems is also diverse and plays a critical role in shaping microbial communities. However, the interactions of biotic and abiotic factors at this terrestrial-aquatic interface need more study, and the question of how underground events influence microbial communities remains open. To answer this, new samples obtained from the El Tatio geothermal field (Chile) were analyzed by 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing (V4 region) and shotgun metagenomics.