Fossil and Recent Biofilms

MICROBIAL BIOFILMS: PROTECTIVE NICHES IN ANCIENT AND MODERN GEOMICROBIOLOGY J. W. Costerton and Paul Stoodley Center for Biofilm Engineering Montana State University As this book is published based on discussions of a conference that was held in 2001, it may be useful to provide an update on the most recent revelations about biofilms, so that this excellent exposition of the contribution of microbial biofilms to geological processes may be placed in a modem context. The importance of the contribution of microbial biofilms to global processes is only now being appreciated as it is revealed that all terrestrial surfaces are teeming with microbial life in the form of biofilm communities. These communities live on soil particles, in rock fissures, marine and river sediments and at the very extremes of terrestrial habitats from inside Antarctic ice to the walls of deep sea hydrothermal vents. The contribution of these biofilm communities generally went unrecognized because it was the water that was where microbiologists looked for life, not the surfaces, although, evidence of the early association of microbes with surfaces was in fact present in the fossil record (Rasmussen, 2000; Reysenbach, and Cady, 2001). It is also revealing that biofilm formation is found in prokaryotes from the most deeply rooted branches of the phylogenetic tree in both the Archaea and Bacteria kingdoms, the Korarchaeota and Aquificales respectively (Jahnke et al. 2001; Reysenbach et al. 2000).

Combines knowledge on sub-aquatic and sub-aerial biofilms and their products (stromatolites, oolites, ore, petroleum and gas deposits) Describes how formation and degradation of minerals and rocks is achieved through biofilm formation on and in sediments, soils and rocks

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Biodata of the Editors. Acknowledgements. Preface. Microbial biofilms: protective niches in ancient and modern geomicrobiology; J.W. Costerton, P. Stoodley. 1: Biofilm, Biodictyon Biomat - Microbialites, Oolites, Stromatolites - Geophysiology, Global Mechanism, Parahistology; W.E. Krumbein, U. Brehm, A.A. Gorbushina, G. Levit, K.A. Palinska. 2: Development and architecture of complex environmental biofilms - lotic biofilm systems; T.R. Neu, A. Eitner, M. Luz Paj. 3: Ecosystem function, cell micro-cycling and the structure of transient biofilms; D.M. Paterson, R. Perkins, M. Consalvey, G.J.C. Underwood. 4: Structure of marine biofilms - Flat Laminated Mats and Modern Marine Stromatolites; J.F. Stolz. 5: Growth, structure and calcification potential of an artificial cyanobacterial mat; M. Kühl, T. Fenchel, J. Kazmierczak. 6: Microbial processes forming marine stromatolites - Microbe-Mineral Interactions with a Three-Billion-Year Rock Record; P. Reid, C.D. Dupraz, P.T. Visscher, D.Y. Sumner. 7: Nitrogen cycling in marine cyanobacterial mats; L.J. Stal. 8: Diversity of Cyano-Bacterial Mats; G.A. Zavarzin. 9: Microbial spheres from microbial mats; U. Brehm, W.E. Krumbein, K.A. Palinska. 10: Protozoans and biofilms; H. Arndt, K. Schmidt-Denter, B. Auer, M. Weiterer. 11: Bryozoan morphoprocesses; J. Scholz, G. Levit. 12: Biofilms and macroorganisms; G. Gerdes. 13: 'Farming' of microbial mats in the hindgut of echinoids; C. DeRidder, R.L. Brigmon. 14: Extracellular polymers (EPS) and calcification within modern marine stromatolites; A.W.Decho, T. Kawaguchi. 15: The Study of a recent Iron-encrusted biofilm in the marine environment; D.C. Gillan. 16: Microbial endoliths as internal biofilms; S. Golubic, J. Schneider. 17: Epibenthic cyanobacterial communities interacting withsedimentary processes in siliciclastic depositional systems (present and past); N. Noffke. 18: The role of biofilms in the fossilization of non-biomineralized tissues; D.E.G. Briggs. 19: Fossil and subrecent fungal communities in three calcrete series from the devonian of the Canadian rocky mountains, Carboniferous of northern France and Cretaceous of central Italy; A. Preat, K. Kolo, B. Mamet, A.A. Gorbushina, D.C. Gillan. 20: Archean biofilms preserved in the Swaziland supergroup, South Africa; M. M. Walsh, F. Westall. 21: Is the feedback between genetic structure and community structure the computational mechanism of biofilm evolution? D.E. Caldwell. 22: Is there an adequate terminology of biofilms and microbial mats? G. Levit, W.E. Krumbein. 23: Hidden in plain sight - A macroscopic approach to biofilms and other visible manifestations of bacteria in the teaching of field microbiology; B.D. Dyer. 24: Is it possible to quantitatively assess the role of algobacterial films in a water body? N.V. Shadrin. 25: The role of fungal biofilm and networks in the terrestrial calcium carbonate cycle; E.P. Verrecchia, C. Loisy, O. Braissant, A.A. Gorbushina. 26: Past and present biofilm formation in deep fennoscandian shield groundwater; K. Pedersen. 27: Melanin and chromatic changes in black crusts of sandstone monuments; J.M. Valero, J.I. AlavaAlava.