bacteria, with cells either living or dead; the organic component required (primarily
an esopolymer) may have been produced by living cells and released in the
environment or attached to dead or not metabolic active cells.
In this Chapter, we use the classification by Dupraz et al. (2009) and refer to
BCCP as a process which bacteria carry out both in microbiologically induced
(active) and/or in microbiologically influenced (passive) way.
5.2.2 General Features of Bacterial CaCO 3 Mineralization
BCCP was described for the first time by Murray and Irvine (1889–90) who
observed the formation of CC crystals after adding seawater to rotting urine. The
important geologic role played by bacteria in CCP was suggested since the beginning of the last century and has been suspected for years. In 1903, Nadson showed
that calcium carbonate deposits in lake Veisowe in Karkou, Russia, could have
originated from bacterial activity. In 1914, Drew called attention to the role of
denitrifying bacteria in calcium carbonate deposition in Great Bahama sediments,
the most significant calcium carbonate deposits that exist all over the world.
Successively, the role of bacteria in CaCO 3 deposition was suggested by several
authors and it was demonstrated that BCCP was a major biogeochemical process,
very diffuse among different taxonomic groups and in different environments such
as soils, freshwater, and saline habitats. Boquet et al. (1973) described calcite
production by 210 soil bacterial isolates on a solid medium with added calcium
and concluded that “under suitable conditions most bacteria form calcite crystals”.
Different bacterial species are capable of precipitating different amounts, shapes,
and types of carbonate crystals from exactly the same synthetic medium, with an
apparent occurrence of species- and environment-specific BCCP (Hammes and
Verstraete 2002). BCCP has been related to the formation of marine calcareous
skeletons, carbonate sediments, and soil carbonate deposits as well as of carbonate
rocks, such as travertines and speleothemes (Rivadeneyra et al. 1998; Vasconcelos
et al. 1995; Folk 1993).
The phenomenon was investigated both in nature and in the laboratory and an
extensive literature is available (see references in Rodriguez-Navarro et al. 2003).
Different possible mechanisms of bacterial involvement in calcification were proposed (Ehrlich 1996) and they have been a matter of controversy (von Knorre and
Krumbein 2000). They include calcium concentration from the medium by microbial binding, metabolic alteration of the medium that results in changes in bicarbonate concentration and pH, and microbial bodies acting as crystal nucleation sites
(Little et al. 1997). From various studies, it emerges that different types of bacteria
as well as abiotic factors seem to contribute in a variety of ways to CCP in a wide
range of different environments (von Knorre and Krumbein 2000) and that several
mechanisms rather than a unique one of CCP could exist in the microbial world.
Bacterial metabolic activities and cell surface structures and their interactions
with environmental physicochemical parameters are commonly recognized as the
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B. Perito and G. Mastromei
an esopolymer) may have been produced by living cells and released in the
environment or attached to dead or not metabolic active cells.
In this Chapter, we use the classification by Dupraz et al. (2009) and refer to
BCCP as a process which bacteria carry out both in microbiologically induced
(active) and/or in microbiologically influenced (passive) way.
5.2.2 General Features of Bacterial CaCO 3 Mineralization
BCCP was described for the first time by Murray and Irvine (1889–90) who
observed the formation of CC crystals after adding seawater to rotting urine. The
important geologic role played by bacteria in CCP was suggested since the beginning of the last century and has been suspected for years. In 1903, Nadson showed
that calcium carbonate deposits in lake Veisowe in Karkou, Russia, could have
originated from bacterial activity. In 1914, Drew called attention to the role of
denitrifying bacteria in calcium carbonate deposition in Great Bahama sediments,
the most significant calcium carbonate deposits that exist all over the world.
Successively, the role of bacteria in CaCO 3 deposition was suggested by several
authors and it was demonstrated that BCCP was a major biogeochemical process,
very diffuse among different taxonomic groups and in different environments such
as soils, freshwater, and saline habitats. Boquet et al. (1973) described calcite
production by 210 soil bacterial isolates on a solid medium with added calcium
and concluded that “under suitable conditions most bacteria form calcite crystals”.
Different bacterial species are capable of precipitating different amounts, shapes,
and types of carbonate crystals from exactly the same synthetic medium, with an
apparent occurrence of species- and environment-specific BCCP (Hammes and
Verstraete 2002). BCCP has been related to the formation of marine calcareous
skeletons, carbonate sediments, and soil carbonate deposits as well as of carbonate
rocks, such as travertines and speleothemes (Rivadeneyra et al. 1998; Vasconcelos
et al. 1995; Folk 1993).
The phenomenon was investigated both in nature and in the laboratory and an
extensive literature is available (see references in Rodriguez-Navarro et al. 2003).
Different possible mechanisms of bacterial involvement in calcification were proposed (Ehrlich 1996) and they have been a matter of controversy (von Knorre and
Krumbein 2000). They include calcium concentration from the medium by microbial binding, metabolic alteration of the medium that results in changes in bicarbonate concentration and pH, and microbial bodies acting as crystal nucleation sites
(Little et al. 1997). From various studies, it emerges that different types of bacteria
as well as abiotic factors seem to contribute in a variety of ways to CCP in a wide
range of different environments (von Knorre and Krumbein 2000) and that several
mechanisms rather than a unique one of CCP could exist in the microbial world.
Bacterial metabolic activities and cell surface structures and their interactions
with environmental physicochemical parameters are commonly recognized as the
118
B. Perito and G. Mastromei