Ebook: Advances in Stromatolite Geobiology

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

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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 Gottingen, Germany

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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 Gottingen, Germany

Content:
Front Matter....Pages i-xii
Front Matter....Pages 1-1
Founding of the Term ‘Stromatolite’: Ernst Louis Kalkowsky (1851–1938) and His Early Stromatolite Research....Pages 3-11
Kalkowsky’s Stromatolites and Oolites (Lower Buntsandstein, Northern Germany)....Pages 13-28
The Nature of Stromatolites: 3,500 Million Years of History and a Century of Research....Pages 29-74
Front Matter....Pages 75-75
Modern Marine Stromatolites of Little Darby Island, Exuma Archipelago, Bahamas: Environmental Setting, Accretion Mechanisms and Role of Euendoliths....Pages 77-89
Molecular Approaches to Studying Living Stromatolites....Pages 91-100
Magnesium Inhibition Controls Spherical Carbonate Precipitation in Ultrabasic Springwater (Cedars, California) and Culture Experiments....Pages 101-121
Microbial Control on Lamina Formation in a Travertine of Crystal Geyser, Utah....Pages 123-133
Photosynthesis-Induced Stromatolite Formation in the Freshwater Creeks....Pages 135-139
The Role of Purple Sulphur Bacteria in Carbonate Precipitation of Modern and Possibly Early Precambrian Stromatolites....Pages 141-149
Precipitation of CaCO3 Under Sulphate-Reduction Conditions....Pages 151-160
Are Stromatolites the Most Ancient Skeletal Organisms?....Pages 161-181
Microbial Mats and Microbialites in the Freshwater Laguna Bacalar, Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico....Pages 183-185
Front Matter....Pages 187-205
Geomicrobiology of Fluid Venting Structures at the Salse di Nirano Mud Volcano Area in the Northern Apennines (Italy)....Pages 207-207
Trace Element and Biomarker Signatures in Iron-Precipitating Microbial Mats from the Tunnel of Aspo (Sweden)....Pages 209-220
Microbial Euendolithic Assemblages and Microborings in Intertidal and Shallow Marine Habitats: Insight in Cyanobacterial Speciation....Pages 221-231
On Microbiocorrosion....Pages 233-263
The Deep-Sea Chemoautotroph Microbial World as Experienced by the Mediterranean Metazoans Through Time....Pages 265-276
Gypsum Microbialite Domes Shaped by Brine Currents from the Badenian Evaporites of Western Ukraine....Pages 277-295
The Microbialite-Vermetid Community of the Salento Peninsula in Southern Italy: A Late Miocene Example of Automicrite Deposition....Pages 297-320
Front Matter....Pages 321-329
The Characterisation of Sedimentary Organic Matter in Carbonates with Fourier-Transform Infrared (FTIR) Spectroscopy....Pages 207-207
Interactions Between Microbes and Siliceous Sponges from Upper Jurassic Buildups of External Prebetic (SE Spain)....Pages 331-342
Aftermath of the Triassic–Jurassic Boundary Crisis: Spiculite Formation on Drowned Triassic Steinplatte Reef-Slope by Communities of Hexactinellid Sponges (Northern Calcareous Alps, Austria)....Pages 343-354
Microbes in Resinous Habitats: A Compilation from Modern and Fossil Resins....Pages 355-390
New Geochemical Method to Characterise Microbialites from the St. Cassian Formation, Dolomites, Northeastern Italy....Pages 391-407
Importance of Rare Earth Element Patterns in Discrimination Between Biotic and Abiotic Mineralization....Pages 409-434
Lower Ordovician Stromatolites from the Anhui Province of South China: Construction and Geobiological Significance....Pages 435-451
Sedimentology and Palaeoecology of Ernietta-Bearing Ediacaran Deposits in Southern Namibia: Implications for Infaunal Vendobiont Communities....Pages 453-462
Biolaminated Siliciclastic Deposits....Pages 463-472
Microbial Binding as a Probable Cause of Taphonomic Variability of Vendian Fossils: Carbonate Casting?....Pages 473-506
Morphology as an Indictor of Biogenicity for 3.5–3.2 Ga Fossil Stromatolites from the Pilbara Craton, Western Australia....Pages 507-524
Back Matter....Pages 525-535
....Pages 537-554