Microbial mats covering recent sediments in the tidal flats of Khor Al-Zubair South of Iraq, NW Arabian Gulf

Abstract

This present study was deal with the microbial sedimentary structures which are mainly induced by the cyanobacteria in the tidal flats of Khor Al-Zubair, North west of the Arabian Gulf. There are three types of sedimentary structures in the area; (i) physical genetics, (ii) biological genetics and (iii) bio-physical genetics. The last one represents the microbial induced sedimentary structure appeared in ten forms, which led to increasing of tidal flats resistance to erosion process and concentrating the coarse grain sizes that accompanied with these structures. The identification of cyanobacteria shows five genera, four of them are filamentous; Microcoleus sp., Lyngbya spp., Oscillatoria spp., and Schizothrix sp., while the other is coccoid Aphanothece sp.