- Phototrophic biofilms
fraction.
). Phototrophic biofilms and microbial mats have been described in extreme environments like thermal springs [Roeselers, G., Norris, T.B., Castenholz, R.W., Rysgaard, S., Glud, R., Kühl, M., andMuyzer, G. (2007)Diversity of phototrophic bacteria in microbial mats from Arctic hot springs (Greenland). [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17227409?ordinalpos=4&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum/ Environmental Microbiology. 9(1): 26–38] ] , hyper saline ponds [Sorensen, K.B., Canfield, D.E., Teske, A.P., and Oren, A. (2005) Community composition of ahypersaline endoevaporitic microbial mat. [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?db=pubmed&cmd=search&term=Community%20composition%20of%20a%20hypersaline%20endoevaporitic%20microbial%20mat/ Applied and Environmental Microbiology 71: 7352-7365.] ] , desert soil crusts, and in lake ice covers in Antarctica. The 3.4-billion-year fossil record of
benthic phototrophic communities, such as microbial mats andstromatolites , indicates that these associations represent the Earth's oldest known ecosystems. It is thought that these early ecosystems played a key role in the build-up ofoxygen in theEarth’s atmosphere [Hoehler, T.M., Bebout, B.M., and Des Marais, D.J. (2001) The role of microbial mats in the production of reduced gases on the early Earth. [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11460161?ordinalpos=2&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum/ Nature 412: 324-327.] ] .There is a growing interest in the application of phototrophic biofilms, for instance in wastewater treatment in
constructed wetlands ,bioremediation ,aquaculture , andbiohydrogen production [Roeselers, G., van Loosdrecht, M.C.M., and Muyzer, G. (2007) Phototrophic biofilms and their potential applications. [http://www.springerlink.com/content/n518x09k16133052/ Journal of Applied Phycology 20(3):227-235] ] .Footnotes
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