Modern microbialites and their environmental signifi-cance,Meiji reef atoll,Nansha (Spratly) Islands,South China Sea  

作　　者：SHEN JianWei1 & WANG Yue1,2 1 Department of Marine Geology, South China Sea Institute of Oceanology Key Laboratory of Marginal Sea Geology, South China Sea Institute of Oceanology and Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510301, China  2 Graduate University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China 

出　　处：《Science China Earth Sciences》2008年第4期608-617,共10页中国科学（地球科学英文版）

基　　金：the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 40472067 and 40572072);Hundred Talents Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences;the Important Direction Project of Knowledge Innovation Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. KZCX3-SW-234)

摘　　要：Meiji (Mischief) coral atoll, in Nansha (Spratly) Islands, South China Sea, consists of an annular reef rim surrounding a central lagoon. On the atoll rim there are either protuberant 'motu' (small coral patch reefs on the rim of atoll) islets or lower sandy cays that contain modern microbialite deposits on the corals in pinnacles and surrounding bottoms of the atoll. Microbialites, including villiform, hairy, and thin spine growth forms, as well as gelatinous masses, mats and encrustation, developed on coral colonies and atoll rim sediments between 0 and 15 m deep-water settings. The microbialites were produced by natural populations of filamentous cyanobacteria and grew on (1) bulbous corals together with Acropora sp., (2) on massive colonies of Galaxea fascicularis, (3) on dead Montipora digitata, and (4) on dead Acropora teres, some hairy microbialite growing around broken coral branches. This study demonstrates that microbial carbonates are developed in coral reefs of South China Sea and indicates that microbial processes may be important in the construction of modern reef systems. The results have significance in the determination of nature and composition in microorganisms implied in the formation ancient microbialites, and permit evaluation of the importance of microbial deposits in mo-dern coral reefs and of 'microbialites' in biogeochemical cycles of modern coral reef systems. The re-sults also provide evidence of modern analogues for ancient microbialites in shallow-water settings, and combine with sedimentological studies of ancient microbialites to understand their controls.Meiji (Mischief) coral atoll, in Nansha (Spratly) Islands, South China Sea, consists of an annular reef rim surrounding a central lagoon. On the atoll rim there are either protuberant ‘motu’ (small coral patch reefs on the rim of atoll) islets or lower sandy cays that contain modern microbialite deposits on the corals in pinnacles and surrounding bottoms of the atoll. Microbialites, including villiform, hairy, and thin spine growth forms, as well as gelatinous masses, mats and encrustation, developed on coral colonies and atoll rim sediments between 0 and 15 m deep-water settings. The microbialites were produced by natural populations of filamentous cyanobacteria and grew on (1) bulbous corals together with Acropora sp., (2) on massive colonies of Galaxea fascicularis, (3) on dead Montipora digitata, and (4) on dead Acropora teres, some hairy microbialite growing around broken coral branches. This study demonstrates that microbial carbonates are developed in coral reefs of South China Sea and indicates that microbial processes may be important in the construction of modern reef systems. The results have significance in the determination of nature and composition in microorganisms implied in the formation ancient microbialites, and permit evaluation of the importance of microbial deposits in modern coral reefs and of ‘microbialites’ in biogeochemical cycles of modern coral reef systems. The results also provide evidence of modern analogues for ancient microbialites in shallow-water settings, and combine with sedimentological studies of ancient microbialites to understand their controls.

关 键 词：MICROBIALITE MEIJI REEF Nansha Island South China Sea 

分 类 号：Q938[生物学—微生物学]