Photosynthetic Microorganisms of the Gavish Sabkha

Abstract

Many studies during the past 20 years have dealt with the photosynthetic and lithogenetic processes occurring in benthic microbial mats of saline lakes throughout the world (Bauld 1981 a, b). The primary constituents of the majority of mats are cyanobacteria; however, eukaryotic algae, e.g., diatoms and green algae, are often present, and sometimes even abundant, especially in brackish and metahaline waters. At salt concentrations exceeding 100‰ S, reports on living diatoms are rare. The diatom assemblages thriving in the benthic mats of Solar Lake (northeast Sinai) are the most salt-resistant ones hitherto described from a permanently hypersaline (up to 180‰ S) environment (Ehrlich 1978 a, b). Cyanobacteria, however, have been reported from much more saline waters, some of them able to grow in 300‰ S (Borowitzka 1981).