Microbial Mats

1. What are Microbial Mats?
Gisela Gerdes

2. Paper from Outer Space – on “Meteorpapier” and Microbial Mats
Aharon Oren

3. Microbial Mats on the Early Earth: The Archean Rock Record
Maud M. Walsh

4. Gunflint Chert Microbiota Revisited – Neither Stromatolites, Nor Cyanobacteria
Wolfgang E. Krumbein

5. Paleoenvironmental Context of Microbial Mat-Related Structures in Siliciclastic Rocks
Patrick G. Eriksson, Subir Sarkar, Pradip Samanta, Santanu Banerjee, Hubertus Porada, Octavian Catuneanu

6. Microbially Related Structures in Siliciclastic Sediment Resembling Ediacaran Fossils: Examples from India, Ancient and Modern
Santanu Banerjee, Subir Sarkar, Patrick G. Eriksson, Pradip Samanta

7. Osmotrophic Biofilms: From Modern to Ancient
Martin D. Brasier, Richard H. T. Callow, Latha R. Menon, Alexander G. Liu

8. Microbial Mats as a Source of Biosignatures
Elizabeth Chacón

9. Molecular Investigations and Experimental Manipulations of Microbial Mats: A View to Paleomicrobial Ecosystems
Stefan J. Green, Linda L. Jahnke

10. Architecture of Archaeal-Dominated Microbial Mats from Cold Seeps in the Black Sea (Dnjepr Canyon, Lower Crimean Shelf)
Joachim Reitner

11. Biodynamics of Modern Marine Stromatolites
David M. Paterson, Rebecca J. Aspden, R. Pamela Reid

12. Entophysalis Mats as Environmental Regulators
Stjepko Golubic, Raeid M. M. Abed

13. Diversity and Role of Cyanobacteria and Aerobic Heterotrophic Microorganisms in Carbon Cycling in Arid Cyanobacterial Mats
Raeid M. M. Abed, Katharina Kohls, Katarzyna A Palinska, Stjepko Golubic

14. Ooid Accreting Diatom Communities from the Modern Marine Stromatolites at Highborne Cay, Bahamas
Jonathan Franks, R. Pamela Reid, Rebecca J. Aspden, Graham J. C. Underwood, David M. Paterson, Lee Prufert-Bebout, John F. Stolz

15. Exopolymers (Extracellular Polymeric Substances) in Diatom-Dominated Marine Sediment Biofilms
Graham J. C. Underwood

16. Microbial Mats from Wind Flats of the Southern Baltic Sea
Kerstin Heyl, Jana Woelfel, Rhena Schumann, Ulf Karsten

17. Diazotrophic Microbial Mats
Ina Severin, Lucas J. Stal

18. Architectures of Biocomplexity: Lichen-Dominated Soil Crusts and Mats
Martin Grube, Johannes Rabensteiner, Ulrike Grube, Lucia Muggia

19. Iron and Bacterial Biofilm Development
Ofir Avidan, Shirley Satanower, Ehud Banin

20. Mats of Filamentous and Unicellular Cyanobacteria in Hypersaline Environments
Aharon Oren

21. Marine Hypersaline Microcoleus-Dominated Cyanobacterial Mats in the Saltern at Guerrero Negro, Baja California Sur, Mexico: A System-Level Perspective
David J. Des Marais

22. Environmental Dynamics, Community Structure and Function in a Hypersaline Microbial Mat
Hans W. Paerl, Anthony C. Yannarell

23. Biogeochemistry of Carbon Cycling in Hypersaline Mats: Linking the Present to the Past through Biosignatures
Pieter T. Visscher, Christophe Dupraz, Olivier Braissant, Kimberley L. Gallagher, Christina Glunk, Lilliam Casillas, Rachel E. S. Reed

24. Phototrophic Biofilms from Río Tinto, an Extreme Acidic Environment, The Prokaryotic Component
Angeles Aguilera, Elena González-Toril, Virginia Souza-Egipsy, Linda Amaral-Zettler, Erik Zettler, Ricardo Amils

25. Fluvial Bedform Generation by Biofilm Activity in the Berrocal Segment of Río Tinto: Acidic Biofilms and Sedimentation
David C. Fernández-Remolar, David Gómez-Ortíz, Olga Prieto-Ballesteros, Felipe Gómez, Ricardo Amils

26. Cyanobacterial Mats of the Meltwater Ponds on the McMurdo Ice Shelf (Antarctica)
Anne D. Jungblut, Brett A. Neilan

27. Diversity and Ecology of Cyanobacterial Microflora of Antarctic Seepage Habitats: Comparison of King George Island, Shetland Islands, and James Ross Island, NW Weddell Sea, Antarctica
Ondřej Komárek, Jiří Komárek

28. Microbial Mats in Antarctica as Models for the Search of Life on the Jovian Moon Europa
Suman Dudeja, Aranya B. Bhattacherjee, Julian Chela-Flores

29. Past, Present, and Future: Microbial Mats as Models for Astrobiological Research
Jamie S. Foster, Jennifer M. Mobberley

30. Summary and Conclusions
Joseph Seckbach, Patrick G. Eriksson, Maud M. Walsh, Aharon Oren, Julian Chela-Flores

Keywords: Life Sciences, Life Sciences, general, Microbial Ecology, Biogeosciences