English (United Kingdom)

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/featured_content/oa?rat=en

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/highlighted_journal/

Global: Zendy Plus annual

Presents the access of premium content as premium feature

Premium Content

Presents the keyphrase highlighting as premium feature

Keyphrase Highlighting

Presents the summarisation as premium feature

Summarisation

Insights

Presents the pdf analysis as premium feature

PDF Analysis

Presents the zaia usage as premium feature

ZAIA

Global: Zendy Tools annual

Global: Zendy Free Plan

Global: Zendy Tools monthly

Global: Zendy Plus monthly

Dolomite is a magnesium-rich carbonate mineral abundant in fossil  carbonate reef platforms but surprisingly rare in modern sedimentary  environments, a conundrum known as the ''Dolomite Problem". Marine  sedimentary dolomite has been interpreted to form by an unconfirmed,  post-depositional diagenetic process, despite minimal experimental  success at replicating this. Here we show that dolomite, accompanied  by magnesite, forms within living crustose coralline alga,  <i>Hydrolithon onkodes</i>, a prolific global tropical reef  species. Chemical micro-analysis of the coralline skeleton reveals  that not only are the cell walls calcitised, but that cell spaces are  typically filled with magnesite, rimmed by dolomite, or  both. Mineralogy was confirmed by X-ray diffraction. Thus there are at  least three mineral phases present (magnesium calcite, dolomite and  magnesite) rather than one or two (magnesium calcite and brucite) as  previously thought. Our results are consistent with dolomite  occurrences in coralline algae rich environments in fossil  reefs. Instead of a theory of post-depositional dolomitisation, we  present evidence revealing biomineralization that can account for the  massive formations seen in the geologic record. Additionally, our  findings imply that previously unrecognized dolomite and magnesite  have formed throughout the Holocene. This discovery together with the  scale of coralline algae dominance in past shallow carbonate  environments raises the possibility that environmental factors driving this biological  dolomitisation process have influenced the global marine  magnesium/calcium cycle. Perhaps, most importantly, we reveal  that what has been considered a geological process can be a biological  process, having many implications for both disciplines

Biomineralization of dolomite and magnesite discovered in tropical coralline algae: a biological solution to the geological dolomite problem