TY  - JOUR
A1  - Roy, Hans
A1  - Kallmeyer, Jens
A1  - Adhikari, Rishi Ram
A1  - Pockalny, Robert
A1  - Jorgensen, Bo Barker
A1  - D'Hondt, Steven
T1  - Aerobic microbial respiration in 86-million-year-old deep-sea red clay
JF  - Science
N2  - Microbial communities can subsist at depth in marine sediments without fresh supply of organic matter for millions of years. At threshold sedimentation rates of 1 millimeter per 1000 years, the low rates of microbial community metabolism in the North Pacific Gyre allow sediments to remain oxygenated tens of meters below the sea floor. We found that the oxygen respiration rates dropped from 10 micromoles of O-2 liter(-1) year(-1) near the sediment-water interface to 0.001 micromoles of O-2 liter(-1) year(-1) at 30-meter depth within 86 million-year-old sediment. The cell-specific respiration rate decreased with depth but stabilized at around 10(-3) femtomoles of O-2 cell(-1) day(-1) 10 meters below the seafloor. This result indicated that the community size is controlled by the rate of carbon oxidation and thereby by the low available energy flux.
Y1  - 2012
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1219424
SN  - 0036-8075
VL  - 336
IS  - 6083
SP  - 922
EP  - 925
PB  - American Assoc. for the Advancement of Science
CY  - Washington
ER  -