title: Aerobic microbial respiration in 86-million-year-old deep-sea red clay.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Center for Geomicrobiology, Department of Bioscience, Aarhus University, Ny Munkegade 116, 8000 Aarhus C, Denmark. hans.roy@biology.au.dk
authors.forename: Hans
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Røy
authors.forename: Jens
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kallmeyer
authors.forename: Rishi Ram
authors.initials: RR
authors.lastname: Adhikari
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Pockalny
authors.forename: Bo Barker
authors.initials: BB
authors.lastname: Jørgensen
authors.forename: Steven
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: D'Hondt
mesh_terms: D000332:Aerobiosis; D000538:Aluminum Silicates; D001419:Bacteria / Q000378:metabolism*; D058491:Bacterial Load; D018407:Bacterial Physiological Phenomena; D002244:Carbon / Q000032:analysis / Q000378:metabolism; D000077215:Clay; D003198:Computer Simulation; D017753:Ecosystem; D004734:Energy Metabolism; D019015:Geologic Sediments / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000382:microbiology*; D010084:Oxidation-Reduction; D010100:Oxygen / Q000032:analysis*; D010101:Oxygen Consumption; D010140:Pacific Ocean; D011387:Prokaryotic Cells / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000502:physiology; D012623:Seawater / Q000737:chemistry / Q000382:microbiology; D013995:Time; D014872:Water Movements
chemical_list: D000538:Aluminum Silicates; D002244:Carbon; D010100:Oxygen; D000077215:Clay