Evaporative silicification in floating microbial mats: patterns of oxygen production and preservation potential in silica-undersaturated streams, El Tatio, Chile

Microbial mats floating within multiple hydrothermally sourced streams in El Tatio, Chile, frequently exhibit brittle siliceous crusts (~1 mm thick) above the air-water interface. The partially silicified mats contain a diverse assemblage of microbial clades and metabolisms, including cyanobacteria performing oxygenic photosynthesis. Surficial crusts are composed of several amorphous silica layers containing well-preserved filaments (most likely cyanobacteria) and other cellular textures overlying EPS-rich unsilicified mats. Environmental logs, silica crust distribution, and microbial preservation patterns provide evidence for crust formation via repeated cycles of evaporation and silica precipitation. Within the mats, in situ microelectrode profiling reveals that daytime oxygen concentrations and pH values are diminished beneath silica crusts compared with adjacent unencrusted communities, indicating localized inhibition of oxygenic photosynthesis due to light attenuation. As a result, aqueous conditions under encrusted mats have a higher saturation state with regard to amorphous silica compared with adjacent, more active mats where high pH increases silica solubility, likely forming a modest feedback loop between diminished photosynthesis and crust precipitation. However, no fully lithified sinters are associated with floating encrusted mats in El Tatio streams, as both subaqueous and subaerial silica precipitation are limited by undersaturated, low-SiO2 (