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Traces Of Possible Ancient Life From Mars To Earth: An Assessment Of The
Microbial Ecology Of Salda Lake And Its Protection

Figure 7. Salda Lake microbialites (2021)
Scientific studies to be conducted for identifying the microbial composition
of Salda Lake, revealing its population dynamics and deciphering its fossil
records will introduce data on the origin and evolution of life on Earth as well
as create a database that is expected to be comparable to the studies NASA
performed during the discovery of possible traces of ancient life in the Jezero
Crater on Mars (İnce et al., 2021).
These unique structures located in Salda Lake grant it with a unmatched
beauty. The findings to be obtained from this lake, which has unique features
in the world, have the potential to give clues to science world regarding
the beginning of life. In this sense, it is of great importance to preserve
the biological and chemical characterisation of Salda Lake. Salda Lake and
its vicinity was declared as "Salda Lake Special Environmental Protection
Zone" with the Presidential decree no.824 of 14.03.2019 and published in the
Official Gazette no.30715 of 15.03.2019, in order to hand down these natural
resources and socio-economic values to the future generations, to use the
natural resources by preservation and to ensure planned development by
taking into account the scientific sensitivities.
Following the field studies and literature reviews, a protocol was signed
between the General Directorate for Preservation of Natural Heritage under
Ministry of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change and İstanbul
Technical University (İTU); which initiated the "Research and Development
Project for Determining the Microbial Ecology of Lake Salda with Advanced
Molecular Methods (Metabarcoding) and Mapping its Geomicrobiological
Characteristics". This project aims to decipher prokaryotic and eukaryotic

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