DIGITAL ARCHIPELAGO

‘The Andean wet puna: a reservoir of microorganisms participating in the arsenic cycle. Their biotechnology potential against arsenic pollution’

Ecology and Conservation Biology

Environment

2005

The presence of arsenic in drinking and irrigation water is an economic, social and environmental problem of the gravest importance. The goals of this project are to characterise the microbial communities found in water basins by traditional microbiology and new molecular microbial ecology methods, and to detect the variables controlling the structure of planktonic communities in media highly contaminated with arsenic.

DIRECTOR

Carlos Pedrós Alió

RESEARCH TEAM

Carlos Pedrós Alió, Cecilia Susana Demergasso, Faustino Siñeriz, Guillermo Chong Díaz, Jenny Marcela Blamey Alegría, Josep M. Gasol i Piqué, Marcela Alejandra Ferrero, María Eugenia Farías, Mª Vanessa Balagué i Añó, Ramón Massana i Molera.

COLLABORATING INSTITUTIONS

Instituto de Ciencias del Mar-CSIC

DESCRIPTION

In several Latin American countries (especially in the north of Chile and Argentina, the zone adjacent to the puna) at least four million people regularly drink water with arsenic levels that constitute a health hazard, and the area has a high incidence of diseases linked to prolonged exposure to this substance.

This project hopes to identify microorganisms of geomicrobiological and biotechnological importance, and to clarify the biogeochemical cycle of arsenic in this zone with a view to its management and bioremediation. The proposal consists of a multidisciplinary project involving specialists in geology, microbiology, hydrochemistry, microbial ecology, biochemistry and biotechnology from Spain, Chile and Argentina.