Microbial mats – potential construction materials of the future

The best known features of the Abu Dhabi coastline are its coastal sabkhas.  The sabkha environment is a flat, highly saline area of sand/silt which has formed just above the water-table where the sand is locally cemented by evaporite salts.  Microbial mats are prolific in the sabkha of Abu Dhabi, UAE and develop due to the extreme hot, arid nature of the environment which limits the occurrence of grazing fauna.  Different types of microbial mat textures are recorded within the sabkha, depending on their position within the intertidal zone.  Some of the mats form unique polygon structures, and despite the extent of these microbial ecosystems relatively little is known about the microbial communities and the geochemical processes responsible for their formation.  We have been investigating the microbial community structure in the mats in relation to the frequency of tidal inundation they receive and also looking at the geochemical processes which occur in these complex biofilms.  The mats are known to precipitate minerals and lithify, become solid rock, over geological time scales. In relation to the HBBE, we will learn from nature by studying the mats for their mineral precipitation and lithification properties, characteristics which will likely be instrumental to inform future research and create novel biotechnological construction materials.