Microbialites (benthic microbial carbonate deposits) were discovered in a hypersaline alkaline lake on Eleuthera Island (Bahamas). From the edge towards the centre of the lake, four main zones of precipitation could be distinguished: (1) millimetre-sized clumps of Mg-calcite on a thin microbial mat; (2) thicker and continuous carbonate crusts with columnar morphologies; (3) isolated patches of ...

Mono Lake is a hypersaline, alkaline lake in the Mono Basin located #at he eastern base of the Californian Sierra Nevada. Its lake-level history since 1912 has been recorded instrumentally, showing the decline of lake-surface elevations initiated by the 1941 artificial diversion of stream inflow. We have made high-resolution oxygen isotopic measurements on the total carbonate fraction of lake s...

The complete genome sequence of a novel halophilic archaeon, Salinarchaeum sp. strain HArcht-Bsk1(T), was determined using next-generation sequencing. The genome comprises a 3,255,260-bp circular chromosome with a G+C content of 66.7%. Automatic annotation of the genome revealed a single rRNA operon, 45 tRNAs, and 3,013 protein-coding gene sequences.

Soap Lake is a small saline lake in central eastern Washington that is sharply stratified into two layers. In addition to being highly alkaline (~pH 10), Soap Lake also contains high concentrations of sulfide. Here, we report the community profile of the prokaryotic microbiota associated with Soap Lake surface water.