Sippewissett Salt Marsh
The Sippewissett microbial mat is a microbial mat in the Sippewissett Salt Marsh located along the lower eastern Buzzards Bay shoreline of Cape Cod, about 5 miles north of Woods Hole and 1 mile southwest of West Falmouth, Massachusetts, in the United States. The marsh has two regions, the Great Sippewisset Marsh to the north and Little Sippewisset Marsh to the south, separated from each other by a narrow tongue of land (Saconesset Hills). The marsh extends into an estuary in which the intertidal zone provides a dynamic environment that supports a diverse ecology, including threatened and endangered species such as the roseate tern ('' Sterna dougallii''). The ecology of the salt marsh is based in and supported by the microbial mats which cover the ground of the marsh. Description The Sippewissett Salt Marsh houses a diverse, laminated intertidal microbial mat around 1 cm thick. The mat is characterized by regular influx of sea water, high amounts of sulfide and iron, and the pr ...
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Microbial Mat
A microbial mat is a multi-layered sheet of microorganisms, mainly bacteria and archaea, or bacteria alone. Microbial mats grow at interfaces between different types of material, mostly on submerged or moist surfaces, but a few survive in deserts. A few are found as endosymbionts of animals. Although only a few centimetres thick at most, microbial mats create a wide range of internal chemical environments, and hence generally consist of layers of microorganisms that can feed on or at least tolerate the dominant chemicals at their level and which are usually of closely related species. In moist conditions mats are usually held together by slimy substances secreted by the microorganisms. In many cases some of the bacteria form tangled webs of filaments which make the mat tougher. The best known physical forms are flat mats and stubby pillars called stromatolites, but there are also spherical forms. Microbial mats are the earliest form of life on Earth for which there is good fossi ...
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