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  • Early Eocene Green River Basin Microbialites: Morphological and Geochemical Data

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    Creator:
    Howard, Cecilia M., Sheldon, Nathan D., Loveall, Zachary, Keating, Katarina A., Hong, Jungpyo, Smith, Selena Y., and Passey, Benjamin H.
    Description:
    This study uses an array of stratigraphic, morphological, and geochemical tools to investigate lateral and temporal variability in environmental records preserved by microbialites during a global hothouse environment. It also inverts tools for reconstructing environmental conditions to elucidate ancient microbial processes. Key Points: - The Green River Basin, WY, USA preserves lacustrine microbialites deposited during the Early Eocene Climatic Optimum, a period of high CO2 and temperatures - Morphological and geochemical analyses of these microbialites preserve variable local, regional, and global environmental conditions - Measurements of environmental conditions can be inverted to understand ancient microbial processes, which could be used to inform modeling of microbial influences on carbon cycling and Abstract: The Green River Basin, WY, USA, contains extensive lacustrine microbialite beds that formed during the hothouse Early Eocene Climatic Optimum (53–49 Ma). The records of biological, chemical, and physical processes preserved in these microbialites can inform our understanding of terrestrial conditions in this warm climate, but separating the competing signals of local, regional and global changes is difficult. Studies focusing on individual localities may miss spatial drivers of differences in microbialites. In this study, we used stratigraphic, morphological, and geochemical techniques to study microbialites deposited in the Green River Basin across three million years spanning the peak of the EECO, including samples from two beds covering 13–25 km of lateral extent. These samples cover a broad set of lake conditions as well as local differences such as spring deposits. We found that these microbialites preserved a mixture of conditions such as global hothouse temperatures, regional shifts in lake level, and local variability from sediment and water sources. Morphological and elemental variability were driven primarily by local and regional conditions such as stream, spring, and clastic inputs and water depth. Isotopic data preserved these local and regional changes as well as evidence of global hothouse conditions. Comparison of past [CO2] estimates to reconstructions using organic and inorganic carbon isotopes with clumped isotope-derived temperatures provides evidence for low to moderate microbial growth rates in these microbialite building communities, demonstrating that environmental tools can be inverted to better understand ancient microbial processes. A diverse toolkit was necessary to isolate the individual controls on microbialite records, and comparing across both space and time enabled us to identify local drivers that lead to significant differences from the expected regional signal.
    Keyword:
    Geosciences, Paleoclimate, Microbialite, Stromatolite, Eocene, Paleolake, and Green River Basin
    Citation to related publication:
    Howard, C.M., et al. (in prep). Disentangling Morphological and Chemical Records of Climate, Hydrology, and Diagenesis in Microbialites from the Eocene Green River Basin, WY, USA.
    Discipline:
    Science