Microbial Mats Pdf

A microbial mat is a place where several different types of microorganisms microbes or tiny single celled animals live together in a community.

Microbial mats pdf.

Among them are cyanobacteria and eukaryotic phototrophs aerobic heterotrophic and chemoautotrophic bacteria protozoa anoxygenic photosynthetic bacteria and other. They colonize environments ranging in temperature from 40 c to 120 c. The microbial mat consisted in a millimeter layered bio sedimentary structure presenting high organic matter 36 0 0 2 and chlorophyll a 144 1 8 1 µg chl a g dw sediment contents. A microbial mat is a multi layered sheet of microorganisms mainly bacteria and archaea and also just bacterial microbial mats grow at interfaces between different types of material mostly on submerged or moist surfaces but a few survive in deserts.

Microbial mats are defined and distinguished from stromatolites that are in simple terms lithified microbial mats. A few are found as endosymbionts of animals. Castenholz in encyclopedia of microbiology third edition 2009. Microbial mats can be considered a specialized type of biofilm.

The mat is a tiny multi layered community where each microbe produces something. While biofilms are typically one to several cell layers thick microbial mats range from several millimeters to a centimeter thick and are vertically stratified into.