Departamento de Ecología Evolutiva, Instituto de Ecología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Coyoacán, México D.F., México.
Astrobiology. 2012 Jul;12(7):641-7. doi: 10.1089/ast.2011.0675.
The Cuatro Ciénegas Basin (CCB) is a rare oasis in the Chihuahuan Desert in the state of Coahuila, Mexico. It has a biological endemism similar to that of the Galapagos Islands, and its spring-fed ecosystems have very low nutrient content (nitrogen or phosphorous) and are dominated by diverse microbialites. Thus, it has proven to be a distinctive opportunity for the field of astrobiology, as the CCB can be seen as a proxy for an earlier time in Earth's history, in particular the late Precambrian, the biological frontier when prokaryotic life yielded at least partial dominance to eukaryotes and multicellular life. It is a kind of ecological time machine that provides abundant opportunities for collaborative investigations by geochemists, geologists, ecologists, and population biologists in the study of the evolutionary processes that structured Earth-based life, especially in the microbial realm. The CCB is an object of investigation for the identification of biosignatures of past and present biota that can be used in our search for extraterrestrial life. In this review, we summarize CCB research efforts that began with microbial ecology and population biology projects and have since been expanded into broader efforts that involve biogeochemistry, comparative genomics, and assessments of biosignatures. We also propose that, in the future, the CCB is sanctioned as a "Precambrian Park" for astrobiology.
四色城盆地（CCB）是墨西哥科阿韦拉州奇瓦瓦沙漠中罕见的绿洲。它具有类似于加拉帕戈斯群岛的生物特有现象，其泉水供养的生态系统氮或磷等营养物质含量极低，并且以多样的微生物岩为主导。因此，它为天体生物学领域提供了一个独特的机会，因为 CCB 可以被视为地球历史早期的代表，特别是晚前寒武纪，当时原核生物至少部分地让位于真核生物和多细胞生物，从而取得了生物优势。它是一种生态时间机器，为地球化学家、地质学家、生态学家和群体生物学家提供了丰富的合作研究机会，以研究构成地球生命的进化过程，特别是在微生物领域。CCB 是鉴定过去和现在生物群的生物特征的研究对象，这些生物特征可用于我们寻找外星生命。在这篇综述中，我们总结了始于微生物生态学和群体生物学项目的 CCB 研究工作，此后这些工作扩展到了涉及生物地球化学、比较基因组学和生物特征评估的更广泛的工作。我们还提议，将来将 CCB 批准为天体生物学的“前寒武纪公园”。
