Characterizing Modern Microbialites and The Geobiological Processes Underlying Their Formation PDF Download

Author: Jamie S. Foster
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
ISBN: 2889632520
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 210

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Author: Kurt O. Konhauser
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1444309021
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 440

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Book Description
Introduction to Geomicrobiology is a timely and comprehensive overview of how microbial life has affected Earth’s environment through time. It shows how the ubiquity of microorganisms, their high chemical reactivity, and their metabolic diversity make them a significant factor controlling the chemical composition of our planet. The following topics are covered: how microorganisms are classified, the physical constraints governing their growth, molecular approaches to studying microbial diversity, and life in extreme environments bioenergetics, microbial metabolic capabilities, and major biogeochemical pathways chemical reactivity of the cell surface, metal sorption, and the microbial role in contaminant mobility and bioremediation/biorecovery microbiological mineral formation and fossilization the function of microorganisms in mineral dissolution and oxidation, and the industrial and environmental ramifications of these processes elemental cycling in biofilms, formation of microbialites, and sediment diagenesis the events that led to the emergence of life, evolution of metabolic processes, and the diversification of the biosphere. Artwork from the book is available to instructors at www.blackwellpublishing.com/konhauser.

Author: Valeria Souza
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030460878
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 237

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Book Description
Astrobiology not only investigates how early life took hold of our planet but also life on other planets – both in our Solar System and beyond – and their potential for habitability. The book take readers from the scars on planetary surfaces made by space rocks to the history of the Solar System narrated by those space rocks as well as exoplanets in other planetary systems. But the true question is how life arose here or elsewhere. Modern comparative genomics has revealed that Darwin was correct; a set of highly conserved genes and cellular functions indicate that all life is related by common ancestry. The Last Universal Common Ancestor or LUCA sits at the base of the Tree of Life. However, once that life took hold, it started to diversify and form complex microbial communities that are known as microbial mats and stromatolites. Due to their long evolutionary history and abundance on modern Earth, research on the biological, chemical and geological processes of stromatolite formation has provided important insights into the field of astrobiology. Many of these microbialite-containing ecosystems have been used as models for astrobiology, and NASA mission analogs including Shark Bay, Pavilion and Kelly Lakes. Modern microbialites represent natural laboratories to study primordial ecosystems and provide proxies for how life could evolve on other planets. However, few viral metagenomic studies (i.e., viromes) have been conducted in microbialites, which are not only an important part of the community but also mirror its biodiversity. This book focuses on particularly interesting sites such as Andean lake microbialites, a proxy of early life since they are characterized by very high UV light, while Alchichica and Bacalar lakes are characterized by high-salt and oligotrophic waters that nurture stromatolites. However, it is only the oasis of Cuatro Ciénegas Basin in México that stored past life in its marine sediments of the Sierra de San Marcos. This particular Sierra has a magmatic pouch that moves the deep aquifer to the surface in a cycle of sun drenched life and back to the depths of the magmatic life in an ancient cycle that now is broken by the overexploitation of the surface water as well as the deep aquifer in order to irrigate alfalfa in the desert. The anthropocene, the era of human folly, is killing this unique time machine and with it the memory of the planet.

Author: Joachim Reitner
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 3642104142
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 553

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Book Description
Stromatolites are the most intriguing geobiological structures of the entire earth history since the beginning of the fossil record in the Archaean. Stromatolites and microbialites are interpreted as biosedimentological remains of biofilms and microbial mats. These structures are important environmental and evolutionary archives which give us information about ancient habitats, biodiversity, and evolution of complex benthic ecosystems. However, many geobiological aspects of these structures are still unknown or only poorly understood. The present proceedings highlight the new ideas and information on the formation and environmental setting of stromatolites presented at the occasion of the Kalkowsky Symposium 2008, held in Göttingen, Germany.

Author: Vinod Tewari
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 940070397X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 739

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Book Description
STROMATOLITES: Interaction of Microbes with Sediments provides an overview and latest information about the formation of Stromatolites as a result of interaction of microbes with sediments. Eighty-three expert scientists from twenty-seven countries present the chapters in this volume which have been reviewed by thirty four referees. The volume deals with ancient to modern examples of stromatolites and microorganisms which are observed in various diverse environments, such as: marine, nonmarine, lacustrine and extreme geographical areas covering almost the whole earth. The reviews are original articles written by leading experienced experts, some chapters deal with latest instrumental techniques used for the study of microbes and Stromatolites. Other chapters have been contributed by young researchers who revealed updated data on Stromatolites. The astrobiological implications of early microbiota, sulfur isotopic ratios, microbialites in extreme conditions on earth has opened up new vistas in the search of extraterrestrial life.

Author: Joseph Seckbach
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9048137993
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 595

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Book Description
This book provides information about microbial mats, from early fossils to modern mats located in marine and terrestrial environments. Microbial mats – layered biofilms containing different types of cells – are most complex systems in which representatives of various groups of organisms are found together. Among them are cyanobacteria and eukaryotic phototrophs, aerobic heterotrophic and chemoautotrophic bacteria, protozoa, anoxygenic photosynthetic bacteria, and other types of microorganisms. These mats are perfect models for biogeochemical processes, such as the cycles of chemical elements, in which a variety of microorganisms cooperate and interact in complex ways. They are often found under extreme conditions and their study contributes to our understanding of extremophilic life. Moreover, microbial mats are models for Precambrian stromatolites; the study of modern microbial mats may provide information on the processes that may have occurred on Earth when prokaryotic life began to spread.

Author: Stephen Mann
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780198508823
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 220

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Author: Brian A. Whitton
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9400738552
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 753

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Book Description
Cyanobacteria have existed for 3.5 billion years, yet they are still the most important photosynthetic organisms on the planet for cycling carbon and nitrogen. The ecosystems where they have key roles range from the warmer oceans to many Antarctic sites. They also include dense nuisance growths in nutrient-rich lakes and nitrogen-fixers which aid the fertility of rice-fields and many soils, especially the biological soil crusts of arid regions. Molecular biology has in recent years provided major advances in our understanding of cyanobacterial ecology. Perhaps for more than any other group of organisms, it is possible to see how the ecology, physiology, biochemistry, ultrastructure and molecular biology interact. This all helps to deal with practical problems such as the control of nuisance blooms and the use of cyanobacterial inocula to manage semi-desert soils. Large-scale culture of several organisms, especially "Spirulina" (Arthrospira), for health food and specialist products is increasingly being expanded for a much wider range of uses. In view of their probable contribution to past oil deposits, much attention is currently focused on their potential as a source of biofuel. Please visit http://extras.springer.com/ to view Extra Materials belonging to this volume. This book complements the highly successful Ecology of Cyanobacteria and integrates the discoveries of the past twelve years with the older literature.

Author: Joachim Reitner
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 9781402092138
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 927

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Book Description
The interplay between Geology and Biology has shaped the Earth from the early Precambrian, 4 billion years ago. Moving beyond the borders of the classical core disciplines, Geobiology strives to identify chains of cause-and-effect and synergisms between the geo- and the biospheres that have been driving the evolution of life in modern and ancient environments. Combining modern methods, geobiological information can be extracted not only from visible remains of organisms, but also from organic molecules, rock fabrics, minerals, isotopes and other tracers. An understanding of these processes and their signatures reveals enormous applied potentials with respect to issues of environment protection, public health, energy and resource management. The Encyclopedia of Geobiology has been designed to act as a key reference for students, researchers, teachers, and the informed public and to provide basic, but comprehensible knowledge on this rapidly expanding discipline that sits at the interface between modern geo- and biosciences.

Author: Michael Elliot Smith
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 9401799067
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 355

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This volume presents a suite of detailed stratigraphic and sedimentologic investigations of the Eocene Green River Formation of Wyoming, Colorado and Utah, one of the world’s foremost terrestrial archives of lacustrine and alluvial deposition during the warmest portion of the early Cenozoic. Its twelve chapters encompass the rich and varied record of lacustrine stratigraphy, sedimentology, geochronology, geochemistry and paleontology. Chapters 2-9 provide detailed member-scale synthesis of Green River Formation strata within the Greater Green River, Fossil, Piceance Creek and Uinta Basins, while its final two chapters address its enigmatic evaporite deposits and ichnofossils at broad, interbasinal scale.