microbialite.org

About microbialite.org

A plain-language guide to microbialites, stromatolites and microbial mats, grounded in peer-reviewed research.

What this site is for

Most people have never heard of microbialites, though they are among the most important ecosystems in the history of the planet. This site explains what they are and why they matter, for students, teachers, visitors to places like Shark Bay and Bacalar, and anyone curious about early life.

Every scientific statement links to its source. The site draws mainly on the published work of three research groups, rewritten in plain language. Summaries are simplified, and the original papers remain the authority.

microbialite.org is curated by the RAW Lab at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

The scientists

Three research programmes whose collaboration links freshwater and hypersaline microbialites, metagenomics, viruses and biogeochemistry.

Richard Allen White III

Associate Professor of Bioinformatics and Genomics, University of North Carolina at Charlotte

White’s microbialite work began with doctoral research at the University of British Columbia, combining metagenomics with genome sequencing of isolates to study the freshwater microbialites of Pavilion Lake and Clinton Creek. He went on to profile the viral communities of Shark Bay stromatolites and, with Visscher and Burns, proposed a role for viruses in lithification. His microbialite sites include Pavilion and Kelly lakes in British Columbia, Clinton Creek in the Yukon and Green Lake in New York. He leads the RAW Lab.

rawlab.org

Pieter T. Visscher

Professor of Marine Sciences, University of Connecticut

Visscher studies the biogeochemistry of microbial mats and microbialites as analogues for life on early Earth, and possibly beyond. His field sites range from hard-water lakes and the open-marine stromatolites of Highborne Cay to hypersaline lakes in the Americas and Australia, some more than 15,000 feet above sea level.

UConn Marine Sciences profile

Brendan P. Burns

Associate Professor, School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences, UNSW Sydney

Burns leads a research programme on the evolutionary and ecological significance of microbial mats and stromatolites, centred on Shark Bay and aligned with the Australian Centre for Astrobiology at UNSW. His group studies microbial diversity and function at millimetre scales, microbial dark matter, and the vulnerability of these ecosystems to climate change.

UNSW profile

Many colleagues and trainees made this work possible, including Hon Lun Wong, Rendy Ruvindy, Fraser MacLeod, Gareth Kindler, Brett Neilan and Curtis Suttle, among the co-authors listed on the publications page.

Photo credits

The photographs on this site come from Wikimedia Commons and are used under the licences listed. Thank you to the photographers who share their work openly.

Contact and corrections

Spotted an error, or want to suggest a paper, a site or a photograph? Get in touch through the RAW Lab at rawlab.org.

Credits

All illustrations on this site are original, and every photograph is credited beneath it and in the photo credits above. The world map is drawn from Natural Earth data, which is in the public domain. Type is set in Archivo and Alegreya, both released under the SIL Open Font License and served from this site.