Just because deserts are dry, doesn't mean they're deserted! Even the driest places on the planet are teeming with bacteria and fungi that persist in various microhabitats. Here are a few haphazardly chosen photos showing the diverse and really cool conditions that microbes inhabit in one of the Earth's driest deserts. If you want to learn more about microbes in drylands generally, check out Stephen Pointing and Jayne Belnap's very nice review from 2012.
(a) Termite mound surrounding roots of Centropodia glauca hummock (b) termite granary filled with grass clippings (c) close up of granary contents showing ~1 cm long pieces of clipped stems (d) close up of granary contents showing termite bite marks (white arrows) and dark pigmented fungal colonization (black arrows).
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(a) Windblown detritus pile on a dune slip face (b) close up of pile showing heterogeneous mixture of litter sizes and shapes (c) close up of detritus showing areas of dark pigmented fungal colonization indicated by white arrows (1 mm scale bar).
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