The mucilaginous sheath of blue-green algae has been considered as a potential microenvironment for bacteria.
These smallest fabric elements most likely are formed by the early cementation of a complex consortium of mat-building cyanobacteria, heterotrophic bacteria and eucaryotic algae.
We assume here that algae provided the carbon for the fullerenes at the three locations of interest.
However, viable algae have not been isolated from ancient glacial ice.
In this study, the tolerance of algae and cyanobacteria to freezing, thawing and freezing-drying stresses was evaluated by short-term (days to months) low-temperature experiments.
The main plants include a variety of microalgae (diatoms), green and red algae and, usually at lower tidal levels, various seagrasses.
The importance of red algae is clearly a theme in several of these papers.
The fact of recovery of algae from permanently frozen sediments may suggest their resistance to both primary and longterm freezing.
