The role of biofilms in the sedimentology of actively forming gypsum deposits at Guerrero Negro, Mexico.

ABSTRACT

Actively forming gypsum deposits at the Guerrero Negro sabkha and saltern system provided habitats for stratified, pigmented microbial communities that exhibited significant morphological and phylogenetic diversity. These deposits ranged from meter-thick gypsum crusts forming in saltern seawater concentration ponds to columnar microbial mats with internally crystallized gypsum granules developing in natural anchialine pools. Gypsum-depositing environments were categorized as forming precipitation surfaces, biofilm-supported surfaces, and clastic surfaces. Each surface type was described in terms of depositional environment, microbial diversity, mineralogy, and sedimentary fabrics. Precipitation surfaces developed in high-salinity subaqueous environments where rates of precipitation outpaced the accumulation of clastic, organic, and/or biofilm layers. These surfaces hosted endolithic biofilms comprised predominantly of oxygenic and anoxygenic phototrophs, sulfate-reducing bacteria, and bacteria from the phylum Bacteroidetes. Biofilm-supported deposits developed in lower-salinity subaqueous environments where light and low water-column turbulence supported dense benthic microbial communities comprised mainly of oxygenic phototrophs. In these settings, gypsum granules precipitated in the extracellular polymeric substance (EPS) matrix as individual granules exhibiting distinctive morphologies. Clastic surfaces developed in sabkha mudflats that included gypsum, carbonate, and siliclastic particles with thin gypsum/biofilm components. Clastic surfaces were influenced by subsurface brine sheets and capillary evaporation and precipitated subsedimentary gypsum discs in deeper regions. Biofilms appeared to influence both chemical and physical sedimentary processes in the various subaqueous and subaerially exposed environments studied. Biofilm interaction with chemical sedimentary processes included dissolution and granularization of precipitation surfaces, formation of gypsum crystals with equant and distorted habits, and precipitation of trace carbonate and oxide phases. Fine-scale wrinkle structures visible in clastic surfaces of sabkha environments offered evidence of the biofilm's role in physical sedimentary processes. These findings are highly relevant to astrobiology because they expand and refine the known characteristics of gypsum deposits, including their biological components.