Definition
Halobacteria (plural), halobacterium (singular). Colloquial for halophilic archaebacteria (or archaea ), which are single-celled life forms. Synonyms: Haloarchaea (plural), haloarchaeon (singular).
Halobacterium. The name of a genus of the archaeal family Halobacteriaceae (Grant, 2001).
Halophilic. Requires a salt-rich environment for growth and survival.
Introduction
Saline waters dominate the earth, with the oceans holding 97% of the planet’s water (a total of 1.338 × 109 km3; http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/earthwherewater.html). Saline inland seas, groundwater, and saltwater lakes hold another 0.9–0.94%, which exceeds the volume of the world’s available freshwater (∼1.1 × 107 km3). The definition of a hypersaline environment is one that possesses a salt concentration greater than that of seawater (>3.5% w/v). Water-containing environments are usually described as thalassohaline or athalassohaline (see Chapters “ Saline Lakes ,” “ Soda Lakes ”). Thalassohaline waters are...
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Stan-Lotter, H. (2011). Halobacteria – Halophiles. In: Reitner, J., Thiel, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Geobiology. Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-9212-1_108
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