Many times, we the Spaniards do not know the wealth, that we have in our country. And, in this sense, I did not know that, in the northeastern Spain, there are some lakes with more wealth even though than sea.
Yes. These lakes are located so high –one of them, at 1,590 meters--:
Pond D´Oles, Gausac, Lérida, Valey of Aran, North eastern Spain
The high mountain lakes of the Aigüestortes National Park, in the province of Lleida, have a greater genetic wealth than existing on the surface of the oceans. This one was revealed by a biocomputing tool, to characterize and catalog the microbial ecosystems in natural environments, based on their genetic wealth, used by a team of researchers, from the National Research Council (CSIC).
The study, published this Thursday, in the journal Molecular Ecology, has compared the data, obtained with the new tool, with previous studies on the microbiota of the most superficial part (up to five meters deep) from oceans, reported by the CSIC.
The results show that, while the chemical and geological variability of oceans is very homogeneous on surface, along thousands of miles, in the protected alpine lakes of Aigüestortes, this variability is very high, for short distances, on the order of a few kilometers.
"It is a contact zone of three types of geological substrates, which makes it unique compared to other alpine areas", said the researcher from the CSIC, Emilio Casamayor, from the Center for Advanced Studies of Blanes.
"All these factors allow developing very different species, in very short distances, accumulating in all a great genetic wealth. It also allows us to consider, for the first time, the possibility of developing conservation studies with microscopic creatures", added the scientist.
Casamayor has also stressed that, for the first time, they have been able to approach the study of microbial communities, without having to catalog or identify the species individually. It was thanks to the genetic information, that they have recovered directly from natural environments, he stated.
"This allows us to characterize, in synoptic manner, as a whole, microbial systems and observing, through an objective tool, how they are organized and function of biological communities and whether they deserve it or not to be exploited or preserved", he explains.
Moreover, he adds: "It is a very useful approach to advance in the knowledge of ecology and evolution of the microbial world; but, also, it has applications in studies of bioprospecting or conservation".
As explained the researcher of the CSIC, microorganisms were the first living beings to appear, on Earth, 3,000 million years ago. Since then, they have been interacting with the chemistry and geology of this planet and have learned to use a wide repertoire of energy sources and food for their survival. Their diversity is not in their shape or size, but that hides in their metabolism, which is codified under a wide genetic variability. That metabolism, combined as a line work in microbial communities, is what remains the viable biosphere.
Well, I think it is very interesting and I have been surprised, as I told you at the beginning. I hope that you have liked this news.
Until my next post, kind regards,
Luis.
Sponsored by Costaluz Lawyers.
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