Search results for "Microbial mat"

Limnology and Aquatic Microbial Ecology of Byers Peninsula: A Main Freshwater Biodiversity Hotspot in Maritime Antarctica

2019

Here we present a comprehensive review of the diversity revealed by research in limnology and microbial ecology conducted in Byers Peninsula (Livingston Island, South Shetland Islands, Antarctica) during the last two decades. The site constitutes one of the largest ice-free areas within the Antarctic Peninsula region. Since it has a high level of environmental protection, it is less human-impacted compared to other sites within the South Shetland archipelago. The main investigations in Byers Peninsula focused on the physical and chemical limnology of the lakes, ponds, rivers, and wetlands, as well as on the structure of their planktonic and benthic microbial communities, and on the function…

Biological and physical modification of carbonate system parameters along the salinity gradient in shallow hypersaline solar salterns in Trapani, Ita…

2017

Abstract We investigated changes in the chemical characteristics of evaporating seawater under the influence of microbial activity by conducting geochemical analyses of the brines and evaporite sediments collected from solar salterns in Trapani, Italy. The microbial activity had a substantial effect on the carbonate system parameters. Dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) was substantially removed from the brine during the course of evaporation from the seawater to the point where calcium carbonate precipitates, with an accompanying decrease in its carbon isotopic composition (δ 13 C DIC ) to as low as −10.6‰. Although the removal of DIC was due to calcium carbonate precipitation, photosynthesis…

Distribution, redox state and (bio)geochemical implications of arsenic in present day microbialites of Laguna Brava, Salar de Atacama

2018

Understanding how microorganisms adapted to the high arsenic concentration present on early Earth requires understanding of the processes involved in the arsenic biogeochemical cycle operating in living microbial mats. To this end, we investigated a living microbial mat from Laguna Brava (Salar de Atacama, Chile), a hypersaline lake with high arsenic concentration, using an array of conventional geochemical techniques, such as X-ray diffraction, SEM-EDX and Confocal Laser Scanning Microscopy (CLSM), combined with state-of-the-art high resolution scanning imaging techniques, including X-ray micro-fluorescence (μXRF) and X-ray Absorption Near Edge Structure (XANES) mapping. This experimental …

A New Niche for Anoxygenic Phototrophs as Endoliths

2018

ABSTRACT Anoxygenic phototrophic bacteria (APBs) occur in a wide range of aquatic habitats, from hot springs to freshwater lakes and intertidal microbial mats. Here, we report the discovery of a novel niche for APBs: endoliths within marine littoral carbonates. In a study of 40 locations around Isla de Mona, Puerto Rico, and Menorca, Spain, 16S rRNA high-throughput sequencing of endolithic community DNA revealed the presence of abundant phylotypes potentially belonging to well-known APB clades. An ad hoc phylogenetic classification of these sequences enabled us to refine the assignments more stringently. Even then, all locations contained such putative APBs, often reaching a significant pro…

Sulfur isotope's signal of nanopyrites enclosed in 2.7 Ga stromatolitic organic remains reveal microbial sulfate reduction.

2018

18 pages; International audience; Microbial sulfate reduction (MSR) is thought to have operated very early on Earth and is often invoked to explain the occurrence of sedimentary sulfides in the rock record. Sedimentary sulfides can also form from sulfides produced abiotically during late diagenesis or metamorphism. As both biotic and abiotic processes contribute to the bulk of sedimentary sulfides, tracing back the original microbial signature from the earliest Earth record is challenging. We present in situ sulfur isotope data from nanopyrites occurring in carbonaceous remains lining the domical shape of stromatolite knobs of the 2.7-Gyr-old Tumbiana Formation (Western Australia). The anal…

The Messinian stromatolites of the Sierra del Colmenar (Western Mediterranean): facies characterization and sedimentological interpretation

2018

A representative outcrop of the Messinian stromatolites belonging to the Terminal Carbonate Complex unit, from the northern sector of the Bajo Segura basin (Caja de Ahorros del Mediterraneo section, Sierra del Colmenar, SE Spain) has been studied. Here, we present a detailed analysis of the architecture, external morphology, and internal morphology in order to reconstruct the environmental and palaeoecological conditions for their growth. The stromatolites macrostructure consists of a continuously doming type morphology (build up and sheets areas).These developed close to the coast and acted as a palaeogeographic barrier, reducing physical stress, channeling the erosive effect of water and …

Freshwater organisms that build stromatolites: a synopsis of biocrystallization by prokaryotic and eukaryotic algae

1998

In freshwater environments such as river and stream bottoms, rocks and submerged vegetation are covered with a biological felt (also called a periphyton, microbial mat, biofilm, etc.) that is susceptible to calcification. Compilation of an extensive bibliography and our own observations have allowed the identification of 44 species of Coccogonophyceae, 122 Hormogonophyceae, 2 Chrysophyceae, 35 Chlorophyceae, 3 Xanthophyceae, 2 diatoms, and 3 Rhodophyceae that grow on calcareous tufa and coat vegetation. Diverse genera include species that are also calcified but impossible to determine because they lack reproductive organs. Crystals have been described from 74 species in the literature and w…

Modeling the Response of the Planktonic Microbial Community to Warming Effects in Maritime Antarctic Lakes

2014

Abstract In this chapter, we describe the design and prognoses given by the simulation of an ecological model dealing with the functioning of the microbial community of a maritime Antarctic lake, whose main ecological features are also reported. The model is based on carbon fluxes through the planktonic community and the carbon subsides from the benthic mosses covering the lake bottom and microbial mats spread over the lake’s catchment. It describes the dynamics of the bacterioplankton, phytoplankton, and organic matter, both particulate and dissolved, during the austral summer, with temperature and solar radiation as the main forcing functions driving the response of the modeled state vari…

2018

AbstractWhile significant efforts have been invested in reconstructing the early evolution of the Earth’s atmosphere–ocean–biosphere biogeochemical nitrogen cycle, the potential role of an early continental contribution by a terrestrial, microbial phototrophic biosphere has been largely overlooked. By transposing to the Archean nitrogen fluxes of modern topsoil communities known as biological soil crusts (terrestrial analogs of microbial mats), whose ancestors might have existed as far back as 3.2 Ga ago, we show that they could have impacted the evolution of the nitrogen cycle early on. We calculate that the net output of inorganic nitrogen reaching the Precambrian hydrogeological system c…

Microbial-mediated pre-salt carbonate deposition during the Messinian salinity crisis (Calcare di Base fm., Southern Italy)

2017

Abstract A multi-scale analysis of sedimentary carbonate facies and post-sedimentary diagenetic features of the Calcare di Base Formation, the precursor to evaporites in Upper Messinian successions of Northern Calabria and Central Sicily, has revealed their microbial bio-mediated origin. Massive to laminated microbial boundstones represent the most common sedimentary facies forming flat to low relief cm to m scale stromatolitic and thrombolitic bodies. The fabric of the micrite varies from peloidal to aphanitic, and almost always preserves filamentous bacteria which characterized the original microbial mat. The mat was dominated by sulphur-oxidizing bacteria belonging to the Thiotrichaceae,…