Contribution of carbonate precipitation to the preservation of ripples in siliciclastic sediments colonized by microorganisms.

Lucía  Maisano; I. Emma  Quijada; Vanesa L.  Perillo; Diana G.  Cuadrado; L. Ariel  Raniolo; Eduardo A.  Gómez

Autores/as

Lucía Maisano Instituto Argentino de Oceanografía (IADO-CONICET-UNS), Florida 5000, 8000 Bahía Blanca, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Departamento de Geología, Universidad Nacional del Sur, Av. Alem 1253, Cuerpo B´Piso 2°, 8000 Bahía Blanca, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
I. Emma Quijada Departamento de Geología, Universidad de Oviedo, C/ Jesús Arias de Velasco s/n, 33005 Oviedo, Spain.
Vanesa L. Perillo Instituto Argentino de Oceanografía (IADO), CONICET, Florida 5000, 8000 Bahía Blanca, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Diana G. Cuadrado Instituto Argentino de Oceanografía (IADO), CONICET, Florida 5000, 8000 Bahía Blanca, Buenos Aires, Argentina
L. Ariel Raniolo Instituto Argentino de Oceanografía (IADO), CONICET, Florida 5000, 8000 Bahía Blanca, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Eduardo A. Gómez Instituto Argentino de Oceanografía (IADO), CONICET, Florida 5000, 8000 Bahía Blanca, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Resumen

The present study traces a carbonate lamination in microbial mats in a siliciclastic coastal environment. The aim of this paper is to determine how physicochemical and biological processes influence the preservation of sedimentary structures such as ripple marks, covering it by carbonate precipitation. Such precipitation is a combination of the activity of microorganisms, and physicochemical factors. Biological factors, such as photosynthesis, composition and activity of the microbial community, and presence of exopolymeric substances (EPS), play a significant role in coastal environments, while high-energy hydrodynamic events supply seawater, providing calcium and carbonate ions, and trigger events like sediment transport, deposition, and erosion. The combination of these hydrodynamic events with the microbial activity creates physical sedimentary structures, such as ripple marks, which can be biostabilized.

The study was conducted in Paso Seco (40°38’40´´S; 62°12´22´´W), a modern coastal flat within an elongated semi-closed basin colonized by microbial mats and categorized as a supratidal zone. Water samples were taken from different ponds within the flat with different degrees of evaporation, and in a tidal creek for hydrochemical analyses. Seawater level fluctuations were measured in the tidal flat over a 10-month period in 2018 using a HOBO water level logger. Ripple field formation over the tidal flat was documented after the occurrence of a strong storm and was monitored throughout three subsequent field trips, and sedimentary samples were taken in a field trip. Petrographic studies show a laterally continuous dense micritic calcite layer, 100–200 µm in thickness, covering the ripple structure, improving the preservation of these bedforms. The presence of microorganisms in the sedimentary environment enables the stabilization of ripple marks because their motility and abundant EPS secretion bind the sediment grains and generate an organic layer that protects them from erosion. On the other hand, the presence of microbial mats contributes to the early preservation of the ripples because they create the adequate conditions for carbonate precipitation. Our observations of modern sedimentary structures and the in situ study of their evolution and early lithification may provide an indicator of microbial colonization and stabilization of ripples in the paleoenvironmental reconstruction.

Citas

Aliaga, V.S., Ferrelli, F., and Piccolo, M.C. (2017). Regionalization of climate over the Argentine Pampas. International journal of climatology, 37: 1237-1247.

American Public Health Association, and American Public Health Association. (2005). Standard methods for the examination of water and wastewater. APHA. American Water Works Association and Water Environment Federation, 21st ed.; American Public Health Association: Washington, DC, USA.

Cuadrado, D.G. (2020). Geobiological model of ripple genesis and preservation in a heterolithic sedimentary sequence for a supratidal area. Sedimentology, 67(5): 2747-2763.

Cuadrado, D.G. and Blasi, A. (2018) Presencia de actividad microbiana en ambientes silicocl asticos actuales y en paleoambientes. Estudio comparativo para el establecimiento de an alogos. Latin American Journal of Sedimentology and Basin Analysis, 24: 39-73.

Cuadrado, D.G., and Pan, J. (2018). Field observations on the evolution of reticulate patterns in microbial mats in a modern siliciclastic coastal environment. Journal of Sedimentary Research, 88 (1): 24-37.

Cuadrado, D.G., Pan, J., Gómez, E.A., and Maisano, L. (2015). Deformed microbial mat structures in a semiarid temperate coastal setting. Sedimentary Geology, 325: 106-118.

Cuadrado, D.G., Maisano, L., and Quijada, I.E. (2021). Role of microbial mats and high sedimentation rates in the early burial and preservation of footprints in a siliciclastic tidal flat. Journal of Sedimentary Research, 91 (5): 479-494.

Dickson, J.A.D. (1966). Carbonate identification and genesis as revealed by staining. Journal of Sedimentary Research, 36(2): 491-505.

Dupraz, C., and Visscher, P.T. (2005). Microbial lithification in marine stromatolites and hypersaline mats. Trends in microbiology, 13 (9): 429-438.

Dupraz, C., Visscher, P.T., Baumgertner, L.K., and Reid, R.P. (2004). Microbe-mineral interaction: Early carbonate precipitation in a hypersaline lake (Eleuthera Islands, Bahamas). Sedimentology, 51: 745-765.

Gerdes, G., Dunajtschik?Piewak, K., Riege, H., Taher, A.G., Krumbein, W.E., and Reineck, H.E. (1994). Structural diversity of biogenic carbonate particles in microbial mats. Sedimentology, 41 (6): 1273-1294.

Kennedy, J.F. (1969). The formation of sediment ripples, dunes, and antidunes. Annual review of fluid mechanics, 1 (1): 147-168.

Maisano, L., Cuadrado, D.G., and Gómez, E.A. (2019). Processes of MISS-formation in a modern siliciclastic tidal flat, Patagonia (Argentina). Sedimentary Geology, 381: 1-12.

Maisano, L., Quijada, I. E., Cuadrado, D. G., Perillo, V. L., Pan, J., and Martinez, A.M. (2020). Carbonate laminae recorded in a siliciclastic tidal flat colonized by microbial mats. Sedimentary Geology, 405: 105702.

Noffke, N. (2003). Epibenthic cyanobacterial communities interacting with sedimentary processes in siliciclastic depositional systems (present and past). In Fossil and recent biofilms (pp. 265-280). Springer, Dordrecht

Noffke, N., and Paterson, D. (2008). Microbial interactions with physical sediment dynamics, and their significance for the interpretation of Earth's biological history. Geobiology, 6 (1): 1-4.

Noffke, N. (2010). Geobiology: Microbial mats in sandy deposits from the Archean Era to today. Springer Science and Business Media.

Noffke, N., Gerdes, G., Klenke, T., and Krumbein, W.E. (2001). Microbially induced sedimentary structures: a new category within the classification of primary sedimentary structures. Journal of Sedimentary Research, 71(5): 649-656.

Pan, J., Cuadrado, D.G., and Bournod, C.N. (2017). Diatom-driven recolonization of microbial mat-dominated siliciclastic tidal flat sediments. FEMS Microbiology Ecology, 93 (10).

Paterson, D.M. (1994). Microbiological mediation of sediment structure and behaviour. In Microbial mats (pp. 97-109). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.

Perillo, V. L., Maisano, L., Martinez, A. M., Quijada, I. E., and Cuadrado, D. G. (2019). Microbial mat contribution to the formation of an evaporitic environment in a temperate-latitude ecosystem. Journal of Hydrology, 575: 105-114.

Reid, R.P., Visscher, P.T., Decho, A.W., Stolz, J.F., Bebout, B.M., Dupraz, C., and Steppe, T.F. (2000). The role of microbes in accretion, lamination and early lithification of modern marine stromatolites. Nature, 406: 989-992.

Seilacher, A. (2008). Biomats, biofilms, and bioglue as preservational agents for arthropod trackways. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 270: 252-257.

Shepard, R.N., and Sumner, D.Y. (2010). Undirected motility of filamentous cyanobacteria produces reticulate mats. Geobiology, 8 (3): 179-190.

Stempels Bautista, C. (2019). Ondas de tormenta en la zona costera de Paso Seco. Buenos Aires, Argentina. (Dissertation, Tesis), Universidad Nacional del Sur, 66 pp.

Strickland, J. D. H., and Parsons, T. R. (1972). A practical handbook of seawater analysis. Fisheries Research Board of Cánada, 328 pp.

Thompson, J.B., Schultze-Lam, S., Beveridge, T.J., and Des Marais, D.J. (1997) Whiting events: biogenic origin due to the photosynthetic activity of cyanobacterial picoplankton. Limnology and Oceanography, 42: 133-141

Varejão, F. G., Warren, L. V., Simões, M. G., Fürsich, F. T., Matos, S. A., and Assine, M. L. (2019). Exceptional preservation of soft tissues by microbial entombment: insights into the taphonomy of the Crato Konservat-Lagerstätte. Palaios, 34(7): 331-348.