Fluid and mineral carbonate biogeochemistry and microbial mats of Caribou Plateau alkaline lakes
| dc.contributor.author | Thompson, Maya | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2025-08-20T22:13:22Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2025-08-20T22:13:22Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2024 | |
| dc.description.abstract | Alkaliphilic microbial mats are the biological foundation in Interior British Columbia alkaline lakes. They are also associated with rare and hard-to-form carbonates that precipitate within the mat laminae. When analyzed with SEM, rounded mineral nodules and crystals were found growing along the length of fibrous microbial mat algaes. Mg-Ca minerals were also found on encrusted soil samples taken along the lacustrine shore. The storage of microbial mats in 90% EtOH shined a light on the importance of organic solvents in the precipitation of hard-to-form carbonates, as these samples were found to precipitate out Mg-Ca and Mg-Na minerals more readily than samples stored in other solutions. The changes in water samples combined with microenvironments created near cell walls suggest that a combination of high alkalinity and biological activities control the precipitation of hard-to-form carbonates. We seek to investigate the functions of microbial mats from a geologist’s perspective and to couple it with in-lab experimentation and analysis, and computational modeling. Supervisor: Anne-Sofie Ahm | |
| dc.description.scholarlevel | Undergraduate | |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/1828/22628 | |
| dc.language.iso | en | |
| dc.subject | alkaline lake | |
| dc.subject | microbially mediated precipitation | |
| dc.subject | biogeochemistry | |
| dc.subject | Mg-carbonate | |
| dc.subject | alkaliphile | |
| dc.subject.department | School of Earth and Ocean Sciences | |
| dc.title | Fluid and mineral carbonate biogeochemistry and microbial mats of Caribou Plateau alkaline lakes | |
| dc.type | Honours thesis |