Extant Earthly Microbial Mats and Microbialites as Models for Exploration of Life in Extraterrestrial Mat Worlds

As we expand the search for life beyond Earth, a water-dominated planet, we turn our eyes to other aquatic worlds. Microbial life found in Earth’s many extreme habitats are considered useful analogs to life forms we are likely to find in extraterrestrial bodies of water. Modern-day benthic microbial mats inhabiting the low-oxygen, high-sulfur submerged sinkholes of temperate Lake Huron (Michigan, USA) and microbialites inhabiting the shallow, high-carbonate waters of subtropical Laguna Bacalar (Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico) serve as potential working models for exploration of extraterrestrial life. In Lake Huron, delicate mats comprising motile filaments of purple-pigmented cyanobacteria capable of oxygenic and anoxygenic photosynthesis and pigment-free chemosynthetic sulfur-oxidizing bacteria lie atop soft, organic-rich sediments. In Laguna Bacalar, lithification by cyanobacteria forms massive carbonate reef structures along the shoreline. Herein, we document studies of these two distinct earthly microbial mat ecosystems and ponder how similar or modified methods of study (e.g., robotics) would be applicable to prospective mat worlds in other planets and their moons (e.g., subsurface Mars and under-ice oceans of Europa). Further studies of modern-day microbial mat and microbialite ecosystems can add to the knowledge of Earth’s biodiversity and guide the search for life in extraterrestrial hydrospheres. View Full-Text

Keywords: mat worlds; microbial mats; microbialites; cyanobacteria; motile microbes; photosynthesis; chemosynthesis; extraterrestrial life models; exobiology

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Biddanda, B.; Weinke, A.; Stone, I.; Kendall, S.; Hartmeyer, P.; Lusardi, W.; Gandulla, S.; Bright, J.; Ruberg, S. Extant Earthly Microbial Mats and Microbialites as Models for Exploration of Life in Extraterrestrial Mat Worlds. Life 2021, 11, 883. https://doi.org/10.3390/life11090883

AMA Style

Biddanda B, Weinke A, Stone I, Kendall S, Hartmeyer P, Lusardi W, Gandulla S, Bright J, Ruberg S. Extant Earthly Microbial Mats and Microbialites as Models for Exploration of Life in Extraterrestrial Mat Worlds. Life. 2021; 11(9):883. https://doi.org/10.3390/life11090883

Chicago/Turabian Style

Biddanda, Bopaiah, Anthony Weinke, Ian Stone, Scott Kendall, Phil Hartmeyer, Wayne Lusardi, Stephanie Gandulla, John Bright, and Steven Ruberg. 2021. "Extant Earthly Microbial Mats and Microbialites as Models for Exploration of Life in Extraterrestrial Mat Worlds" Life 11, no. 9: 883. https://doi.org/10.3390/life11090883

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Author Biographies

Bopaiah Biddanda

Bopaiah Biddanda; Ph.D. in Ecology, University of Georgia, 1987; Aquatic microbial ecologist and carbon biogeochemist. During their Ph.D., the author explored new mechanisms of microbial carbon flux in the sea under the mentorship of Lawrence Pomeroy. Thereafter, they went on research and teaching adventures at the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research (Germany), National Institute of Oceanography (India), University of Texas Marine Science Institute, University of Rio Grande (Brazil) and University of Minnesota. Currently, as a professor of water resources, the author studies the microbial biogeochemistry of the Laurentian Great Lakes, explores life in submerged sinkholes, and operates a world-class time-series buoy observatory in an urbanized estuary at Grand Valley State University. Future area of interest include Earth’s lakes as sentinels change – focusing on the changing carbon cycle, and the role of microbes in one of our most vital global commons – freshwater.

Anthony Weinke

Anthony Weinke; M.S. in Biology-Aquatic Science, Grand Valley State University, 2016; Currently the Biddanda Lab Manager since 2016, operating and maintaining a high-frequency time series buoy observatory for monitoring weather and water quality in a Great Lakes regional lake/estuary undergoing restoration, and the logistics of deploying monitoring equipment and cameras to the bottom of sinkholes for monitoring diel processes in microbial mats. The author is interested in the intersection of physical and biological processes. Past and current research includes studying the impacts of wind events and intrusions on stratification, bottom-water hypoxia, and productivity in lakes, and diel movement of bacterial filaments in microbial mats of extreme ecosystems.

Ian Stone

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Scott Kendall

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Phil Hartmeyer

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Wayne Lusardi

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Stephanie Gandulla

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John Bright

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Steven Ruberg

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Extant Earthly Microbial Mats and Microbialites as Models for Exploration of Life in Extraterrestrial Mat Worlds

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