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Science 14 March 1986:
Vol. 231. no. 4743, pp. 1279 - 1281
DOI: 10.1126/science.231.4743.1279
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Articles

Heliotropism in Modern Stromatolites

STANLEY M. AWRAMIK 1 and JAMES P. VANYO 2

1 Department of Geological Sciences, Preston Cloud Research Laboratory, University of California, Santa Barbara 93106.
2 Department of Mechanical and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Santa Barbara 93106.

Modern microbial mats and stromatolites exhibiting a preferred orientation toward specular sunlight were found at two sites. In Hamelin Pool of Shark Bay, Western Australia, subtidal decimeter-sized columns and intertidal centimeter-sized tufts were found pointing north. In thermal spring effluents and pools of Yellowstone National Park, mats were found with columnar and conical centimeter-sized structures inclined to the south. These examples of heliotropism in modern stromatolites are each built by a different community of photosynthetic microbes under markedly different environmental conditions. These new observations support the proposal that stromatolites can orient themselves toward the sun.

Submitted on July 1, 1985
Accepted on October 30, 1985


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
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Progress in Physical Geography 11, 398-405
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