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The Chilean Coastal Cordillera features a spectacular climate and vegetation gradient, ranging from arid and unvegetated areas in the north to humid and forested areas in the south. The EarthShape project (“ Earth Surface Shaping by Biota ”) uses this natural gradient to investigate how climate and biological processes shape the Earth's surface. We explored the Critical Zone, the Earth's uppermost layer, in four key sites located in desert, semidesert, Mediterranean, and temperate climate zones of the Coastal Cordillera, with the focus on weathering of granitic rock. Here, we present first results from 16 approximately 2 m-deep regolith profiles to document: (1) architecture of weathering zone; (2) degree and rate of rock weathering, thus the release of mineral-derived nutrients to the terrestrial ecosystems; (3) denudation rates; and (4) microbial abundances of bacteria and archaea in the saprolite. From north to south, denudation rates from cosmogenic nuclides are ~10 t km −2  yr −1 at the arid Pan de Azúcar site, ~20 t km −2  yr −1 at the semi-arid site of Santa Gracia, ~60 t km −2  yr −1 at the Mediterranean climate site of La Campana, and ~30 t km −2  yr −1 at the humid site of Nahuelbuta. A and B horizons increase in thickness and elemental depletion or enrichment increases from north (~26°S) to south (~38°S) in these horizons. Differences in the degree of chemical weathering, quantified by the chemical depletion fraction (CDF), are significant only between the arid and sparsely vegetated site and the other three sites. Differences in the CDF between the sites, and elemental depletion within the sites are sometimes smaller than the variations induced by the bedrock heterogeneity. Microbial abundances (bacteria and archaea) in saprolite substantially increase from the arid to the semi-arid sites. With this study, we provide a comprehensive dataset characterizing the Critical Zone geochemistry in the Chilean Coastal Cordillera. This dataset confirms climatic controls on weathering and denudation rates and provides prerequisites to quantify the role of biota in future studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A comprehensive monitoring program has been performed at an industrial bioleaching heap at the Escondida mine in Chile since 2006, in order to study possible changes to the indigenous microbial population. In the initial stage of the bioleaching heap operation, the microbial population was dominated by mesophilic microorganisms. When the height of the heap increased, the microbial population changed from predominantly mesophilic to thermotolerant and moderate thermophilic microorganisms. The results of molecular analyses indicated that under these conditions Leptospirillum ferriphilum and Sulfobacillus thermosulfidooxidans are the most abundant microorganisms. Those results obtained show that the highest ferrous iron oxidation activity at the third lift occurs at the same operational temperature window as that of the thermotolerant and moderate thermophiles. An increase in the expression of genes (including rfa F1) associated with cell envelope biogenesis was indicative of the active growth of L. ferriphilum . We conclude that the increasing heap height and the consequent increase in temperature within the heap triggered a change in the microbial community from mesophilic to moderate thermophilic microorganisms. Further, this shift had a relevant impact on the metallurgical performance of the industrial bioheap process at Escondida mine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] Genetic diversity of rhizobia present in nodules of beans in two Chilean soils is very low. [•] The genetic diversity was independent of soil origin and previous use. [•] Indigenous rhizobial populations play a minor role symbiotic partner selection. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]