What harm could perchlorate consuming bacteria do to potential native life forms on Mars?

Question

Since the discovery of the toxic perchlorate being globally distributed in the martian soil the chances for microscopic life there are thought to be greatly reduced..
Even in the RSL's, once thought to be avoided for fear of contamination by the Curiosity rover, signs of perchlorates were spotted.
Over 40 diverse microorganisms capable of growth via perchlorate reduction have been isolated. They use 2 types of enzymes that collectively take perchlorate into harmless chloride, while free oxygen is generated.

In a protected environment, like a greenhouse, those microbes could be used to clean up soil and dust that would then be suitable for agriculture and would also help in creating a breathable atmosphere.
Outside that protected environment the microbes would barely have a chance to survive the harsh martian conditions so contamination seems out of the question.

Although planetary protection rules forbid biological contamination of Mars, could not nevertheless perchlorate consuming bacteria be introduced there, at least for controlled tests ?
Because the introduced microbe would be well examined, it could always be well distinguished from whatever martian microbe would appear.

And how could a toxic consuming species, producing only harmless chloride and oxygen escaping in the atmosphere, be a threat for potential life forms native to Mars?

Answer 1

There are a number of issues that I can envisage.

Chemical reaction rates can be temperature dependent: the colder the temperature the slower the rate of reactions. This applies to life forms.

The cold temperatures on Mars could result in microbes having a slower "metabolism" and the rate of perchlorate consumption could be slower than envisaged.

Like all known life forms, microbes require water (moisture) to survive. The two things that Mars currently lacks is warm and moisture and microbes depend on both to flourish. For your plan to succeed it would need a mixture of perchlorate "rich" regolith, moisture, microbes and warmth.

You may need to undergo a process of doublethink for what comes next.

The second issue is any microbes introduced to Mars could be an exotic species. The history of exotic species on Earth is they are rarely, if ever contained, and usually become problematic. They can out compete native species and become dominant, to the detriment of native species. The same could happen on Mars. I place little faith in anyone's abilities to force the containment of microbes, or any other introduced species on Mars.

The other thing about exotic species, is in their natural habitat they usually have predators, even microbes. Place them in an environment without predators and they can become invasive, to the detriment of native species.

The other problem I envisage is, assuming everything works as planned, the chloride products produced by the microbes would be another problem as most agricultural plants have a low tolerance for salt and other chlorides.