Figure 4. Schematic illustrating some of the key putative microbial interactions occurring in Shark Bay microbial mats inferred from the present study.

Putative interactions are based on archaeal distribution determined by 16S rDNA sequencing and methanogenesis measurements, as well as previous work on bacterial distribution with depth in these microbial mat systems (Wong et al., 2015). (A) Putative key interactions in smooth mats (B) putative key interactions in pustular mats.