Looking for biosignatures in a pristine Mars analogue environment on Earth
Resumen de la comunicación oral presentada en EGU23, the 25th EGU General Assembly, held 23-28 April, 2023 in Vienna, Austria and Online. Online at https://egu23.eu/, id. EGU-6149
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European Geosciences Union
2023-04
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10261/357679 http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100004837 http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100011033 |
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Resumen de la comunicación oral presentada en EGU23, the 25th EGU General Assembly, held 23-28 April, 2023 in Vienna, Austria and Online. Online at https://egu23.eu/, id. EGU-6149 |
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Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) |
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Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) Palma, Vera Jiménez Morillo, N. T. Sauro, Francesco Massironi, M. Rosa Arranz, José M. de la González-Pérez, José Antonio Onac, Bogdan P. Tiago, I. Caldeira, Ana Teresa Miller, A. Z. |
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comunicación de congreso |
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Palma, Vera Jiménez Morillo, N. T. Sauro, Francesco Massironi, M. Rosa Arranz, José M. de la González-Pérez, José Antonio Onac, Bogdan P. Tiago, I. Caldeira, Ana Teresa Miller, A. Z. |
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Palma, Vera Jiménez Morillo, N. T. Sauro, Francesco Massironi, M. Rosa Arranz, José M. de la González-Pérez, José Antonio Onac, Bogdan P. Tiago, I. Caldeira, Ana Teresa Miller, A. Z. Looking for biosignatures in a pristine Mars analogue environment on Earth |
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Palma, Vera |
| title |
Looking for biosignatures in a pristine Mars analogue environment on Earth |
| title_short |
Looking for biosignatures in a pristine Mars analogue environment on Earth |
| title_full |
Looking for biosignatures in a pristine Mars analogue environment on Earth |
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Looking for biosignatures in a pristine Mars analogue environment on Earth |
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Looking for biosignatures in a pristine Mars analogue environment on Earth |
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looking for biosignatures in a pristine mars analogue environment on earth |
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European Geosciences Union |
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2023-04 |
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http://hdl.handle.net/10261/357679 http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100004837 http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100011033 |
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dig-irnas-es-10261-3576792024-05-21T08:05:39Z Looking for biosignatures in a pristine Mars analogue environment on Earth Palma, Vera Jiménez Morillo, N. T. Sauro, Francesco Massironi, M. Rosa Arranz, José M. de la González-Pérez, José Antonio Onac, Bogdan P. Tiago, I. Caldeira, Ana Teresa Miller, A. Z. Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (España) Agencia Estatal de Investigación (España) Resumen de la comunicación oral presentada en EGU23, the 25th EGU General Assembly, held 23-28 April, 2023 in Vienna, Austria and Online. Online at https://egu23.eu/, id. EGU-6149 The Selvagens Islands (Madeira, Portugal), located in the North Atlantic, are a small archipelago of volcanic origin formed by two main islands, which emerged in the Oligocene (25-29 Ma). These oceanic islands are recognized as a unique example of marine and terrestrial biodiversity, characterized by many endemic species. Still unblemished by civilization, this isolated and undisturbed ecosystem makes the volcanic caves from Selvagens a promising model system for investigating biosignatures preserved in the rock record valuable for astrobiology. The Inferno Cave, one of the three main terrestrial caves of the Selvagens Islands, has copious amounts of fine white powder crusts scattered throughout the cave. From the mineralogical point of view, the whitish powdery deposits are mainly composed of gypsum and minor amounts of clay minerals. Thermal analyses (TG/DTG-DsC) revealed the presence of labile and stable organic matter (OM), with contrasting relative abundances among the gypsum samples. The stable isotope composition of carbon was determined by elemental analysis coupled to isotope ratio mass spectrometry (EA/IRMS) to decipher the origin of the organic fraction preserved in the gypsum deposits. Two well-differentiated organic matter pools were distinguished: one comprising 𝛿13C values > –19 ‰ related to microbial activity (i.e., microbial degradation of fresh organic matter), and another with 𝛿13C < –20 ‰), which may suggest the preservation of recalcitrant biomarkers from aboveground vegetation. U-series results from the gypsum deposits were used to produce isochron ages needed to generate an age-depth model for the 1-m thick gypsum deposit. A detailed study of the organic fraction preserved in the gypsum deposits was conducted by pyrolysis gas chromatography/ mass spectrometry (Py-GC/MS) and by GC-MS after extraction of total lipids. Preliminary results show the presence of n-alkanes of low molecular weight (<C21). In addition, long-chain n-alkanes (C>21) were also observed, which indicates a direct contribution of plant biomass from the overlying surface. Interestingly, the Py-GC/MS analysis also shows relatively large contents of mid-chain branched alkanes associated with a direct biological source focused on microorganisms since they are known to biosynthesize such alkanes. A predominance of chemolithotrophic microbial communities was found based on the 16S rRNA gene analysis, which is consistent with the biological origin of the mid-chain branched alkanes. The mineralogical, biogeochemical, and microbiological characterization of the gypsum samples from the pristine Selvagens Islands is thus a reliable way to infer the biogenicity of cave mineral deposits, recognize biosignatures, and determine paleoenvironmental changes from a natural environment, free from anthropogenic influence. Considering the analogies with Mars, the Selvagens Islands are also suitable for space research, including astronaut training and rover testing for future planetary missions. This work received support from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) under the MICROCENO project (PTDC/CTA-AMB/0608/2020). The financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (MCIN) under the research project TUBOLAN PID2019-108672RJ-I00 funded by MCIN/AEI/ 10.13039/501100011033 is also acknowledged. A.Z.M. was supported by the CEECIND/01147/2017 contract from FCT, and the Ramón y Cajal contract (RYC2019-026885-I) from the MCIN. No 2024-05-21T07:47:17Z 2024-05-21T07:47:17Z 2023-04 comunicación de congreso http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_5794 EGU2023 EGU General Assembly 2023 EGU23-6149(2023) http://hdl.handle.net/10261/357679 10.5194/egusphere-egu23-6149 http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100004837 http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100011033 en #PLACEHOLDER_PARENT_METADATA_VALUE# #PLACEHOLDER_PARENT_METADATA_VALUE# info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/AEI/Plan Estatal de Investigación Científica y Técnica y de Innovación 2017-2020/PID2019-108672RJ-I00/ES/MICROBIOTA SUBTERRANEA Y BIOMINEROGENESIS EN TUBOS DE LAVA DE LANZAROTE: IMPLICACIONES PARA LA ASTROBIOLOGIA Y LA BIOTECNOLOGIA/ info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/AEI/Plan Estatal de Investigación Científica y Técnica y de Innovación 2017-2020/RYC2019-026885-I http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-6149 Sí open European Geosciences Union |