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On October 22, 2024, 1:46:04 PM UTC, Gravatar ckan_admin:

  • Updated description of Layered biofilms in patterned estuarine bedforms: Present-day footprints of Precambrian self-organisation? from

    In a field and laboratory study, it is tested whether biologically enhanced self-organisation could explain the formation and multi-annual persistence of regularly patterned, biofilm-covered and internally laminated bedforms on present-day intertidal flats. Algal mats of filamentous macroalgae (Vaucheria sp.) cover topographic highs of regularly spaced, meter-scale ridge and runnel bedforms. Indicators of self-organisation are tested and it is suggested that long-term bedform persistence is promoted by biofilm-induced sediment trapping and biostabilisation. This implies that biofilms can significantly impact landscape development, in contrast to previous studies emphasising biofilm seasonality. The ridges colonised by Vaucheria consist of wavy-crinkly laminated sedimentary deposits that resemble the layering found in ancient stromatolites and microbially induced sedimentary structures. In addition to layering, the morphological pattern and formation mechanism of the recent bedforms are strikingly similar to microbialite strata found in the Precambrian fossil record, which suggests that self-organisation was an important morphological process in times when biofilms were the predominant sessile ecosystem. These findings furthermore emphasise that self-organisation dynamics such as critical transitions invoking ecosystem emergence and collapse might have been captured in fossil microbialite laminae, a notion that may be important for paleoenvironmental reconstructions based on such strata.
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    In a field and laboratory study, it is tested whether biologically enhanced self-organisation could explain the formation and multi-annual persistence of regularly patterned, biofilm-covered and internally laminated bedforms on present-day intertidal flats. Algal mats of filamentous macroalgae (Vaucheria sp.) cover topographic highs of regularly spaced, meter-scale ridge and runnel bedforms. Indicators of self-organisation are tested and it is suggested that long-term bedform persistence is promoted by biofilm-induced sediment trapping and biostabilisation. This implies that biofilms can significantly impact bedform development, in contrast to previous studies emphasising biofilm seasonality. The ridges colonised and likely enhanced by Vaucheria consist of wavy-crinkly laminated sedimentary deposits that resemble the layering found in ancient stromatolites and microbially induced sedimentary structures. In addition to layering, both the morphological pattern and the formation mechanism of the recent bedforms are strikingly similar to microbialite strata found in the Precambrian fossil record, which suggests that self-organisation was an important morphological process in times when biofilms were the predominant sessile ecosystem. These findings furthermore emphasise that self-organisation dynamics such as critical transitions invoking ecosystem emergence or collapse might have been captured in fossil microbialites, influencing their laminae, a notion that may be important for paleoenvironmental reconstructions based on such strata.


  • Changed the version of Layered biofilms in patterned estuarine bedforms: Present-day footprints of Precambrian self-organisation? to 2 (previously 1)