Laminated cyanobacterial mats in sediments of solar salt works: some sedimentological implications

Formation of microlaminated sediments in solar salt works along the Mediterranean coast in southern France only occurs within a restricted salinity range of 60–150 gl^?1. These salinities are associated with development of a laminated cyanobacterial mat composed primarily of the filamentous cyanobacteria Microcoleus chthonoplastes interbedded with detrital laminae. Transplants of the cyanobacterial mat to a less saline zone (36–60 gl^?1) indicated that the cyanobacterial mats failed to colonize the less saline waters due to herbivorous snails and competition for light from floating algal masses of Cladophora and Enteromorpha. Neither the snails nor the Cladophora and Enteromorpha masses are tolerant of salinities above 60 gl^?1, and therefore the Microcoleus mats are restricted to those areas of the solar salt works with these higher salinities. Analyses of salinity, conductivity, dissolved oxygen and pH in shallow salt pans (with salinities of 60–150 gl^?1) established a relationship between the daily development of oxygen supersaturation and cyanobacterial photosynthesis. Sediments are unlaminated in those portions of the solar salt works where there are no cyanobacterial mats. These mats are frequently drained of their overlying water, and thus desiccation cracks divide them into polygonal plates. The development and translocation of these plates is enhanced by gas bubbles which form under the surface of the mats. No correlation between the microlaminae in sections from two cores located approximately 1 m apart was observed. This was consistent with the hypothesis that the surface of the desiccation crack polygons can be removed by currents and redeposited on the top of other cyanobacterial mat polygons. This process results in a ‘patchwork quilt’of young and old cyanobacterial mat polygons with an irregular microlamination pattern. The presence of such an irregular pattern of laminae permits an important distinction to be made between sediments associated with stromatolite formation and those associated with the very fine and horizontal varved sediments of stratified (meromictic) water bodies. The sedimentological significance of these observations is reviewed in relation to the processes of stromatolite genesis.