Microbial Mats: Modern and Ancient Microorganisms in Stratified Systems

Front Matter....Pages i-xxvi
Front Matter....Pages 1-1
What are Microbial Mats?....Pages 3-25
Paper from Outer Space – on “Meteorpapier” and Microbial Mats....Pages 27-38
Front Matter....Pages 40-40
Microbial Mats on the Early Earth: The Archean Rock Record....Pages 41-51
Gunflint Chert Microbiota Revisited – Neither Stromatolites, Nor Cyanobacteria....Pages 53-70
Paleoenvironmental Context of Microbial Mat-Related Structures in Siliciclastic Rocks....Pages 71-108
Microbially Related Structures in Siliciclastic Sediment Resembling Ediacaran Fossils: Examples from India, Ancient and Modern....Pages 109-129
Osmotrophic Biofilms: From Modern to Ancient....Pages 131-148
Microbial Mats as a Source of Biosignatures....Pages 149-181
Molecular Investigations and Experimental Manipulations of Microbial Mats: A View to Paleomicrobial Ecosystems....Pages 183-206
Architecture of Archaeal-Dominated Microbial Mats from Cold Seeps in the Black Sea (Dnjepr Canyon, Lower Crimean Shelf)....Pages 207-220
Front Matter....Pages 221-222
Biodynamics of Modern Marine Stromatolites....Pages 223-235
Entophysalis Mats as Environmental Regulators....Pages 237-251
Diversity and Role of Cyanobacteria and Aerobic Heterotrophic Microorganisms in Carbon Cycling in Arid Cyanobacterial Mats....Pages 253-273
Ooid Accreting Diatom Communities from the Modern Marine Stromatolites at Highborne Cay, Bahamas....Pages 275-285
Exopolymers (Extracellular Polymeric Substances) in Diatom-Dominated Marine Sediment Biofilms....Pages 287-300
Microbial Mats from Wind Flats of the Southern Baltic Sea....Pages 301-319
Diazotrophic Microbial Mats....Pages 321-339
Architectures of Biocomplexity: Lichen-Dominated Soil Crusts and Mats....Pages 341-357
Iron and Bacterial Biofilm Development....Pages 359-383
Front Matter....Pages 385-385
Mats of Filamentous and Unicellular Cyanobacteria in Hypersaline Environments....Pages 387-400
Front Matter....Pages 385-385
Marine Hypersaline Microcoleus -Dominated Cyanobacterial Mats in the Saltern at Guerrero Negro, Baja California Sur, Mexico: A System-Level Perspective....Pages 401-420
Environmental Dynamics, Community Structure and Function in a Hypersaline Microbial Mat....Pages 421-442
Biogeochemistry of Carbon Cycling in Hypersaline Mats: Linking the Present to the Past through Biosignatures....Pages 443-468
Phototrophic Biofilms from Río Tinto, an Extreme Acidic Environment, The Prokaryotic Component....Pages 469-481
Fluvial Bedform Generation by Biofilm Activity in the Berrocal Segment of Río Tinto: Acidic Biofilms and Sedimentation....Pages 483-498
Cyanobacterial Mats of the Meltwater Ponds on the McMurdo Ice Shelf (Antarctica)....Pages 499-514
Diversity and Ecology of Cyanobacterial Microflora of Antarctic Seepage Habitats: Comparison of King George Island, Shetland Islands, and James Ross Island, NW Weddell Sea, Antarctica....Pages 515-539
Front Matter....Pages 542-542
Microbial Mats in Antarctica as Models for the Search of Life on the Jovian Moon Europa....Pages 543-561
Past, Present, and Future: Microbial Mats as Models for Astrobiological Research....Pages 563-582
Front Matter....Pages 586-586
Summary and Conclusions....Pages 585-590
Back Matter....Pages 593-610