Calcification in a coccoid cyanobacterium associated with the formation of desert stromatolites

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Abstract
In the Borrego Desert (California) and in the Sinai Desert (Israel) laminated, microbially mediated carbonate crusts have been found and analysed biologically and mineralogically, and further studied with scanning electron microscope methods combined with energy dispersive X‐ray analyses. All morphological and biological features of the extant crusts justify the term ‘desert stromatolite’, a term applied to stromatolites from desert regions which form under permanent exposure to the atmosphere. These stromatolites are never covered by standing water, and running water (heavy rainfall) covers them for only a few hours during the year. Carbonate deposition is achieved principally by the cyanobacterium Pleurocapsa sp. which exhibits characteristic yet different stages of calcification. Calcification occurs in the sheaths of single cells (including baeocytes) as well as in mature colonies. The specificity for calcification in Pleurocapsa sp. is discussed.