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Living Stromatolites of Shark Bay, Western Australia: Microbial Inhabitants

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STROMATOLITES: Interaction of Microbes with Sediments

Part of the book series: Cellular Origin, Life in Extreme Habitats and Astrobiology ((COLE,volume 18))

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Abstract

An abundance of stromatolites throughout the Earth’s geological records has been widely documented. The oldest examples of these preserved stromatolites are dated to more than three billion years of age (Byerly et al., 1986; Lowe, 1980; Walter et al., 1980). It is under debate whether they are of abiogenic or biogenic origin (Schopf et al., 2002), since geological processes of sedimentation can mimic the layering caused by microbes (Grotzinger and Knoll, 1999). However, recent studies have also reflected a growing acceptance of the oldest stromatolites from the Pilbara as biogenic (Allwood et al., 2006). This revealed that through the examination of different stromatolite morphologies and their similarities to modern microbially mediated carbonates, these formations were not purely the result of an abiogenic phenomenon. However, evidences of metabolic processes and biogeochemical cycles occurring in stromatolites are rarely preserved in these fossilised stromatolites.

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 Acknowledgements

The author acknowledges and thanks the following people: the editors Professor Vinod C. Tewari and Professor Joseph Seckbach for invitation to contribute in this book volume and much of the coordination and administration of the publication and the two anonymous referees for their suggestions and comments towards the improvement of this book chapter. Finally, the author thanks both Professor Brett Neilan and Dr. Brendan Burns for their guidance, suggestion, and advice throughout this project.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Genome Institute of Singapore, 60 Biopolis Street, Singapore, 138672, Singapore

    Falicia Goh

  2. School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, 2052, Australia

    Falicia Goh

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  1. Falicia Goh
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Correspondence to Falicia Goh .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. , Sedimentology Group, Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology, General Mahadeo Singh Road 33, Dehradun, Uttarakhand, 248001, India

    Vinod Tewari

  2. University of Jerusalem, Mevo Hadas 20, Efrat, 90435, Israel

    Joseph Seckbach

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Goh, F. (2011). Living Stromatolites of Shark Bay, Western Australia: Microbial Inhabitants. In: Tewari, V., Seckbach, J. (eds) STROMATOLITES: Interaction of Microbes with Sediments. Cellular Origin, Life in Extreme Habitats and Astrobiology, vol 18. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0397-1_15

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