Distributions of microbial activities in deep subseafloor sediments
Document Type
Article
Date of Original Version
12-24-2004
Abstract
Diverse microbial communities and numerous energy-yielding activities occur in deeply buried sediments of the eastern Pacific Ocean. Distributions of metabolic activities often deviate from the standard model. Rates of activities, cell concentrations, and populations of cultured bacteria vary consistently from one subseafloor environment to another. Net rates of major activities principally rely on electron acceptors and electron donors from the photosynthetic surface world. At open-ocean sites, nitrate and oxygen are supplied to the deepest sedimentary communities through the underlying basaltic aquifer. In turn, these sedimentary communities may supply dissolved electron donors and nutrients to the underlying crustal biosphere.
Publication Title, e.g., Journal
Science
Volume
306
Issue
5705
Citation/Publisher Attribution
D'Hondt, Steven, Bo B. Jørgensen, D. J. Miller, Anja Batzke, Ruth Blake, Barry A. Cragg, Heribert Cypionka, Gerald R. Dickens, Timothy Ferdelman, Kai Uwe Hinrichs, Nils G. Holm, Richard Mitterer, Arthur Spivack, Guizhi Wang, Barbara Bekins, Bert Engelen, Kathryn Ford, Glen Gettemy, Scott D. Rutherford, Henrik Sass, C. G. Skilbeck, Ivano W. Aiello, Gilles Guèrin, Christopher H. House, Fumio Inagaki, Patrick Meister, Thomas Naehr, Sachiko Niitsuma, R. J. Parkes, Axel Schippers, David C. Smith, Andreas Teske, Juergen Wiegel, Christian N. Padilla, and Juana Luz Solis Acosta. "Distributions of microbial activities in deep subseafloor sediments." Science 306, 5705 (2004). doi: 10.1126/science.1101155.