Extreme altitude photosynthetic community characterized with field spectroscopy

The Atacama Plateau, within the Atacama Desert in Northern Argentina and Chile, is one of the driest, most inhospitable regions on Earth. Yet in this otherwise barren landscape there exists microbial and moss communities found at very high altitudes supported by volcanic vents. The ecosystems around these vents are established in an extremely inhospitable environment, and can be counted as supporting the highest living vegetation on Earth. We present spectroscopy results from a February, 2009, expedition to Socompa volcano, Argentina to revisit a previously identified volcanic vent supporting photosynthetic mosses. A portable field spectrometer was carried to 6,050 meters (19,850 ft) above sea level and used to acquire spectral reflectance signatures from vegetation growing at the vent site and the reflectance signatures of surrounding soils and rocks. Vegetation growing at the vent site exhibited absorption of red light at 680 nm and distinctive red edge reflectance near 725 nm, indicative of active photosynthesis. These results demonstrate that reflected light from mosses growing on and around volcanic vents at high altitudes may have sufficient signal to be detected from satellite imaging platforms.