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Microbial mats: hypersaline communities from Baja California
As part of a large scale, multidisciplinary effort to understand the complex intereactions between microbial community structure and emergent ecosystem properties we are studying hypersaline microbial mats as model microbial ecosystems. These are microbial ecosystems that harbor a large variety of organisms able to tolerate and thrive under environmental extremes of ionic concentration, light exposure and poisonous gases such as hydrogen sulfide. We are particularly interested in explaining the distribution and abundance of microorganisms in time and space in terms of environmental gradients and interactions. These microbial mats represent the modern analogs for what must have been the major type of ecosystem on Earth for much of its early history, Understanding their functioning gives us the key to understanding the past features of Earths biogechemistry.
This work is funded by NASA’s National Astrobiology Institute.
This is an example of a temporary pond at one of the natural lagoon sites.
This is a close up view of the example seen in the previous picture.
This site is from a natural lagoon situated between the main bay (which feeds the entire system) and one of the salt concentrating ponds. The missing rectangular piece is a portion of the microbial mat removed for cyanobacterial community structure studies.
This is an example of a cryptoendolithic bacterial community. This cross section of a gypsum tee-pee shows both, the outer white gypsum crystals, and the numerous concentric rings of bacterial communities.
This is an example of the way microbial mat samples are taken from the field. Cores are taken from the mat (circular missing pieces). The top ~ 3 cm are removed and frozen in liquid nitrogen. The samples are then transported back to the lab where to study the community structure.
This is an example of how the microbial mats affect the geomorphology of the area. The microbial mats consolidate and strengthen the soil, so when the high tide comes through the lagoon, the soil is not washed away, but forms these reef-like structures.
This is a profile of an excavated mat.
Abundant mats form in the shores of hypersaline lagoons.