Maria Estrella Alcaman

Hydrothermal sources represent a natural observatory for extremophiles microbial communities. In particular, high temperatures determine the distribution and function of microbial groups involved in the nitrogen cycle, such as cyanobacteria. Maria Estrella will focus her thesis on the dynamics and functional diversity of microbial mats living at different temperature ranges in northern Patagonia through isotopic biogeochemical assays and gene expression quantification. Special attention will be put into diazotrophic cyanobacterial communities, which are actively involved in carbon fixation in the first layers of the mats.