design: Water (20 liters) was collected during the rainy season (January 2018) from a point where the water emerges in the mountain in an hypersaline system located in Cusco, Peru.  The samples were obtained with sterilized tools and containers, and salinity and pH were measured in situ using a hand refractometer (Spectronic Instruments Inc., Rochester, NY, USA) and pH potentiometer (HANNA Instruments, Portugal), respectively.