Stabilization of friable sandstone surfaces in a desiccating, wind-abraded environment of south-central Utah by rock surface microorganisms

Kurtz, Harry D.; Netoff, Dennis I.

doi:10.1006/jare.2000.0743

Cited by 48 publications

(38 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…Kurtz and Netoff found that microorganisms can stabilize rocks against erosion instead of accelerating weathering, which is what we normally envision (178). Although sandstone exposed to wind is abraded and blown away over time, prokaryotes can counteract this process (178). After the wind cuts a groove in sandstone, a succession of cyanobacteria colonize the newly exposed surface: coccoid cells attach first, followed by a secondary community of filamentous organisms that bind neighboring grains to one another and grow to interconnect pores in the stone.…”

Section: Rock Solidmentioning

confidence: 72%

Section: Rock Solidmentioning

confidence: 89%

“…After the wind cuts a groove in sandstone, a succession of cyanobacteria colonize the newly exposed surface: coccoid cells attach first, followed by a secondary community of filamentous organisms that bind neighboring grains to one another and grow to interconnect pores in the stone. These entangled filaments and their accompanying extracellular polysaccharides stabilize surface crusts so they resist wind erosion (178). Other microbes stabilize soils and desert crusts (178), and a filamentous cyanobacterium stabilizes sand dunes by a similar mechanism (252).…”

Section: Rock Solidmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These entangled filaments and their accompanying extracellular polysaccharides stabilize surface crusts so they resist wind erosion (178). Other microbes stabilize soils and desert crusts (178), and a filamentous cyanobacterium stabilizes sand dunes by a similar mechanism (252). Kurtz and Netoff speculated that by filling the sandstone pores the microorganisms may also reduce the rock's porosity and thus reduce the amount of water lost to evaporation, which would benefit the microbes and the underlying strata (178).…”

Section: Rock Solidmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Selective Value of Bacterial Shape

Young

2006

Microbiol Mol Biol Rev

864

777

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SUMMARY Why do bacteria have shape? Is morphology valuable or just a trivial secondary characteristic? Why should bacteria have one shape instead of another? Three broad considerations suggest that bacterial shapes are not accidental but are biologically important: cells adopt uniform morphologies from among a wide variety of possibilities, some cells modify their shape as conditions demand, and morphology can be tracked through evolutionary lineages. All of these imply that shape is a selectable feature that aids survival. The aim of this review is to spell out the physical, environmental, and biological forces that favor different bacterial morphologies and which, therefore, contribute to natural selection. Specifically, cell shape is driven by eight general considerations: nutrient access, cell division and segregation, attachment to surfaces, passive dispersal, active motility, polar differentiation, the need to escape predators, and the advantages of cellular differentiation. Bacteria respond to these forces by performing a type of calculus, integrating over a number of environmental and behavioral factors to produce a size and shape that are optimal for the circumstances in which they live. Just as we are beginning to answer how bacteria create their shapes, it seems reasonable and essential that we expand our efforts to understand why they do so.

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Section: Rock Solidmentioning

confidence: 72%

Section: Rock Solidmentioning

confidence: 89%

Section: Rock Solidmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Rock Solidmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

The Selective Value of Bacterial Shape

Young

2006

Microbiol Mol Biol Rev

864

777

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“…Endolithic communities within sandstones have now been described from many surface locations around the world, including hot and cold deserts, and even buildings (e.g., Blackhurst et al 2005;Büdel et al 1994Büdel et al , 2004Friedmann 1980Friedmann , 1982Grondona et al 1997;Kurtz and Netoff 2001;Omelon et al 2006;Palmer et al 1991;Uwins et al 1998;Weber et al 1996;Wessels and Büdel 1995). Microorganisms are known to inhabit subsurface sandstones, where the porosity and flow of nutrient and redox couplecontaining ground waters can supply them with their metabolic requirements (e.g., Fredrickson et al 1997;Colwell et al 1997;Tseng and Onstott 1997;Onstott et al 1998).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact‐induced impoverishment and transformation of a sandstone habitat for lithophytic microorganisms

Cockell¹,

Osinski²

2007

Meteorit & Planetary Scien

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Abstract-Sandstones are a common habitat for lithophytic microorganisms, including cryptoendoliths. We describe laboratory experiments on the colonization of impact metamorphosed sandstones from the Haughton impact structure, Canadian High Arctic. Colonization experiments with the coccoid cyanobacterium, Chroococcidiopsis sp. and the motile gram-positive bacterium Bacillus subtilis, show that, in contrast to initially low porosity crystalline target rocks, which can become more porous as a result of impact bulking, by closing pore spaces the sedimentary cryptoendolithic habitat can be impoverished by impact. However, the heterogeneous distribution of collapsed pores, melt phases, and subsequent recrystallization, results in heterogeneous colonization patterns. Cavities and vesicles formed during melting can yield new habitats for both cryptoendoliths and chasmoendoliths, manifested in the natural cryptoendolithic colonization of shocked sandstones. By contrast, post-impact thermal annealing and recrystallization of impact melt phases destroys the cavities and vesicles. In extreme cases, complete recrystallization of the rock fabric makes the material suitable only for epilithic, and potentially hypolithic, colonists. These experiments further our understanding of the influence of the target lithology on the effects of asteroid and comet impacts on habitats for lithophytic microorganisms.

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Slope Systems

Wainwright

Brazier

2011

Arid Zone Geomorphology

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Stabilization of friable sandstone surfaces in a desiccating, wind-abraded environment of south-central Utah by rock surface microorganisms

Cited by 48 publications

References 26 publications

The Selective Value of Bacterial Shape

The Selective Value of Bacterial Shape

Impact‐induced impoverishment and transformation of a sandstone habitat for lithophytic microorganisms

Slope Systems

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