Agent‐Based Modelling of Microbialite Formation Through Sedimentation and Precipitation Dynamics
8 affiliations
- 1UK Centre for Astrobiology, School of Physics and Astronomy University of Edinburgh Edinburgh UK
- 2Edinburgh Centre for Planetary Sciences University of Edinburgh Edinburgh UK
- 3Naturalis Biodiversity Center Leiden the Netherlands
- 4Department of Chemistry Howard University Washington DC USA
- 5Earth and Planets Laboratory Carnegie Institution for Science Washington DC USA
- 6Blue Marble Space Institute for Science Seattle Washington USA
- 7Department of Biology IISER Pune Pune Maharashtra India
- 8School of Geosciences University of Edinburgh Edinburgh UK
Abstract
Fossil microbialites resulting from the interplay of sedimentation and precipitation are among the oldest evidence of life on Earth and help geobiologists to interpret many sedimentary environments. However, the factors governing their internal structure and external morphology are still poorly understood. Additionally, abiotic processes can mimic the morphology of some microbialites, complicating their use as ‘biosignatures’. The presence and style of internal structures such as clots and laminations may help solve both problems, but existing models of microbialite growth address only external morphology and do not show explicitly how internal structures emerge. In this work, we present an agent‐based model of microbialite formation using a fast, open‐source, high‐level microbialite modelling framework, written in Julia. We separate and label the products of sedimentation and precipitation, allowing external periodic forcing to control either or both. We qualitatively reproduce a wide range of internal and external morphologies found in real microbialites. Importantly, we find that microbialites with the same external morphology can differ greatly in their internal structure, a result impossible to observe with previous approaches. Further exploration and extension of our model may offer new approaches to resolving the ambiguity of potential microbialites in the rock record. Finally, we present the first interactive microbialite simulation to enable live parameter updating through an accessible interface that can be used as a tool for both research and teaching.
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BibTeX
@article{rodgers2026agentbased,
title = {{Agent‐Based Modelling of Microbialite Formation Through Sedimentation and Precipitation Dynamics}},
author = {Niall Rodgers and Laurane Fogret and Mark van Zuilen and H. James Cleaves and Sudha Rajamani and Sean McMahon},
journal = {Geobiology},
year = {2026},
month = nov,
doi = {10.1111/gbi.70071},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1111/gbi.70071},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Agent‐Based Modelling of Microbialite Formation Through Sedimentation and Precipitation Dynamics
AU - Niall Rodgers
AU - Laurane Fogret
AU - Mark van Zuilen
AU - H. James Cleaves
AU - Sudha Rajamani
AU - Sean McMahon
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/11/04
JO - Geobiology
DO - 10.1111/gbi.70071
UR - https://doi.org/10.1111/gbi.70071
AB - Fossil microbialites resulting from the interplay of sedimentation and precipitation are among the oldest evidence of life on Earth and help geobiologists to interpret many sedimentary environments. However, the factors governing their internal structure and external morphology are still poorly understood. Additionally, abiotic processes can mimic the morphology of some microbialites, complicating their use as ‘biosignatures’. The presence and style of internal structures such as clots and laminations may help solve both problems, but existing models of microbialite growth address only external morphology and do not show explicitly how internal structures emerge. In this work, we present an agent‐based model of microbialite formation using a fast, open‐source, high‐level microbialite modelling framework, written in Julia. We separate and label the products of sedimentation and precipitation, allowing external periodic forcing to control either or both. We qualitatively reproduce a wide range of internal and external morphologies found in real microbialites. Importantly, we find that microbialites with the same external morphology can differ greatly in their internal structure, a result impossible to observe with previous approaches. Further exploration and extension of our model may offer new approaches to resolving the ambiguity of potential microbialites in the rock record. Finally, we present the first interactive microbialite simulation to enable live parameter updating through an accessible interface that can be used as a tool for both research and teaching.
SN - 1472-4677
SN - 1472-4669
ER -