FIG. 26.7 Microbial mats. Mats, like the example in (a) from Western Australia, cover tidal flats and lagoons where salinity or other environmental factors inhibit animals and seaweeds. As shown by the example from (b) Cape Cod, microbial mats have sharp vertical gradients of light, oxygen, and other chemical compounds, and so support nearly all the energy metabolisms found in (c) the expanded carbon cycle.
University; b. Republished with permission of Springer Science+Business Media, from The Prokaryotes: Vol. 2: Ecophysiology and Biochemistry 2006, The Phototrophic Way of Life Jörg Overmann and Ferrau Garcia-