The Ediacara Member of the Rawnsley Quartzite in the Flinders Ranges (South Australia) has undergone considerable investigation due to its placement within the package of terminal Ediacaran sediments in the region and as the host sediments of the Ediacara biota fossils. Afocus on palaeoenvironment reconstruction and taphonomy has seen a succession of lithofacies models presented. These have evolved with the expansion of recognised Ediacara biota localities and prevailing palaeontological methodologies. Much of the recent descriptive lithofacies work has focused on the Nilpena fossil site in the west of the Flinders Ranges. This location is particularly fossil- rich but does not represent a 'typical' section through the Ediacara Member. The Ediacara Member elsewhere in the region contains up to six parasequences with total thicknesses varying from ten to 260 m. With the exclusion of the Ikara-Chace Range region, the majority of studied locations external to Nilpena do not show clear evidence for significant (canyon-scale), intra-member erosional features. In this study we review existing facies models for the Ediacara Member and compile a 'best - fit' revised facies model by incorporating the modern facies interpretations (largely based at Nilpena) and previous basin-wide observations, models and stratigraphic sections. The revised model is assessed against a series of newly measured stratigraphic sections from across the basin. We propose the division of the wave-base facies into two facies, representative of the upper and lower storm wave-base environments respectively and the re-inclusion of a facies representative of a shoreface palaeoenvironment. Additional characters and identifiers for the facies have been incorporated to aid field identification, as the ability to identify facies of fossil-bearing isolated hand- specimens can allow fossils found on scree slopes to be traced back to source beds. Likewise, palaeoenvironmental interpretations are critical to the reconstruction of Ediacara biota habitat and preservational environments.

Rellegadla, S., Jain, S., Agrawal, A., 2020. Oil reservoir simulating bioreactors: tools for understanding petroleum microbiology. Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology 104, 1035-1053.

https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-019-10311-5 Various aspects of the oil fields in terms of microbial activity (souring, biocorrosion, etc.) and oil production (polymer flooding, etc.) have been evaluated through a variety of experiments. The primary step to study these properties in the laboratory requires the construction and operation of up-flow oil reservoir simulating bioreactors (ORSBs) in real time. Souring by reduction of sulfate to sulfide is a major contributor in enhancing corrosion of metal infrastructure used for oil production and processing. Whether the injection of biocides prevents or remediates reservoir souring can be addressed by flooding up-flow ORSBs. The potential of biopolymers/biosurfactants produced by different microbial strains have also been investigated for the role in maintaining additional oil recovery using ORSB. Additionally, key issues of polymer behavior during flooding of reservoirs could be understood during laboratory studies by monitoring the in situ porous medium rheology. Besides, the change in various ORSB parameters helps in adjudging the effect of different biosurfactants/biopolymers in enhancing oil recovery. Parameters such as permeability reduction, adsorption, interaction with porous matrix, and formation damage can be evaluated using ORSB. The analysis of earlier studies indicated that running bioreactors for longer duration of time can help in drawing conclusion with sharpness and less ambiguity. The current review discusses the construction and application of various types of ORSBs including the experimental studies employing ORSBs.

Remizovschi, A., Carpa, R., Forray, F.L., Chiriac, C., Roba, C.-A., Beldean-Galea, S., Andrei, A.- Ș., Szekeres, E., Baricz, A., Lupan, I., Knut, R., Coman, C., 2020. Mud volcanoes and the presence of PAHs. Scientific Reports 10, 1253.

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-58282-2 A mud volcano (MV) is a naturally hydrocarbon-spiked environment, as indicated by the presence of various quantities of PAHs and aromatic isotopic shifts in its sediments. Recurrent expulsion of various hydrocarbons consolidates the growth of hydrocarbonoclastic bacterial communities in the areas around MVs. In addition to the widely-known availability of biologically malleable alkanes, MVs can represent hotbeds of polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), as well - an aspect that has not been previously explored. This study measured the 13 availability of highly recalcitrant PAHs and the isotopic signature of MVsediments both by GC- MS and δ C analyses. Subsequently, this study highlighted both the occurrence and distribution of putative PAH-degrading