The term algal-mat that is traditionally used in long time was changed into the term microbial mat and was widely adopted, which is resulted from the conceptual transformation of the blue-green algae that should be grouped into cyanobacteria. Long-time researches and studies indicate that the microbial mat is actually a complex microbial community, and this microbial community is actually a consortium of varied kinds of symbiotic/syntrophic organisms that embrace all metabolic pathways that ever emerged on Earth. Although there are some disagreements, an important idea that carbonate stromatolites were the constructs of algae mats (microbial mats) urges sedimentologists to seek the imprint of microbial activities in terrigenous clastic rocks. The reinterpretation for some problematic trace fossils that were found in the early times results in emergence of some new concepts such as the mat ground and the matground structure. Also, more and more observations of the microbial-mat relative features within clastic rocks led to a new recognition, i.e. the microbial induced sedimentary structure (MISS) can be grouped into a fifth category of primary sedimentary structures. On the basis of emphasizing that microbial mats influence the depositional fabric of clastic deposits across a wide range of physical, chemical and biological processes, the microbial induced sedimentary structures can further be grouped into several genetic categories that contain the microbial-mat growth, the metabolism, the disruption, the decomposing and the diagenesis types. The establishment of both the genetic type and the classification for the microbial-mat feature that are left in elastic rocks promote the development o~ the microbial-mat sedimentology in elastic rocks and within the framework of geobiology.%当蓝绿藻被修正为蓝细菌的时候,多年使用的藻席的概念就被修正为微生物席.科学家们长期观察和研究的结果表明:微生物席实际上是一种多种生物共生的、而且是同营养生物的同生微生物群落,这个复杂的微生物群落几乎包含了曾经出现在地球上的所有的新陈代谢途径.尽管还存在一些争议,多年来认为碳酸盐叠层石是"藻席"(微生物席)的建造物的理念,促使沉积学家们在碎屑岩中寻找微生物席的生命活动留下的痕迹.随着对早年描述的一些可疑的遗迹化石的重新解释,产生了席底和席底构造的新概念;也随着现代和化石记录中更多的与微生物席相关的沉积构造在碎屑岩中的发现,从而出现了将碎屑岩中的微生物诱发的沉积构造(Microbialinducedsedimentary structure;简称为MISS构造)归到第五类原生沉积构造的新认识;在强调了包含一个较宽泛的物理、化学和生物过程的基础上,微生物诱发的沉积构造还被进一步归为微生物席生长、新陈代谢、破坏、腐烂和成岩过程几个大类.成因类型的挖掘和分类体系的建立,促进了在地球生物学框架下的碎屑岩微生物席沉积学的发展.
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