http://www.dec.wa.gov.au/management-and-protection/threatened-species/wa-s-microbialites-research-and-conservation-symposium.html

On October 29-30 2012, DEC’s Species and Communities Branch hosted an international symposium entitled “Research and conservation: Western Australia’s microbialites”. The aims included discussing the status, knowledge, research, and conservation of structures including stromatolites and thrombolites – that are generally termed ‘microbialites’.

For billions of years microbialites such as stromatolites were important in helping produce the oxygen-rich atmosphere that now supports life on earth. In fact WA’s Pilbara region contains the world’s oldest known microbialite fossils at about 3.4 billion years. WA also contains some of the world’s most well known living stromatolites – at Hamelin Pool. Other very important living microbialites in WA include the stromatolites in Lake Thetis near Cervantes, the extensive thrombolite reefs of Lake Clifton near Mandurah and the smaller reefs in Lake Richmond near Rockingham, the unusual microbial ‘tufa’ that flow across rocks near Augusta, and the amazing wispy microbial mantles in the waters of Nullarbor caves.

Speakers at the symposium who are leaders in their fields talked about the variety and world-class importance of WA’s microbialites; determining how, where and why the structures grow; the unusual types of microbes that form the structures; their quite specific water chemistry, and conservation issues with certain sites.