title: Turnover of microbial lipids in the deep biosphere and growth of benthic archaeal populations.
abstract: Deep subseafloor sediments host a microbial biosphere with unknown impact on global biogeochemical cycles. This study tests previous evidence based on microbial intact polar lipids (IPLs) as proxies of live biomass, suggesting that Archaea dominate the marine sedimentary biosphere. We devised a sensitive radiotracer assay to measure the decay rate of ([(14)C]glucosyl)-diphytanylglyceroldiether (GlcDGD) as an analog of archaeal IPLs in continental margin sediments. The degradation kinetics were incorporated in model simulations that constrained the fossil fraction of subseafloor IPLs and rates of archaeal turnover. Simulating the top 1 km in a generic continental margin sediment column, we estimated degradation rate constants of GlcDGD being one to two orders of magnitude lower than those of bacterial IPLs, with half-lives of GlcDGD increasing with depth to 310 ky. Given estimated microbial community turnover times of 1.6-73 ky in sediments deeper than 1 m, 50-96% of archaeal IPLs represent fossil signals. Consequently, previous lipid-based estimates of global subseafloor biomass probably are too high, and the widely observed dominance of archaeal IPLs does not rule out a deep biosphere dominated by Bacteria. Reverse modeling of existing concentration profiles suggest that archaeal IPL synthesis rates decline from around 1,000 pg⋅mL(-1) sediment⋅y(-1) at the surface to 0.2 pg⋅mL(-1)⋅y(-1) at 1 km depth, equivalent to production of 7 × 10(5) to 140 archaeal cells⋅mL(-1) sediment⋅y(-1), respectively. These constraints on microbial growth are an important step toward understanding the relationship between the deep biosphere and the carbon cycle.
authors.affiliation: Organic Geochemistry Group, MARUM-Center for Marine Environmental Sciences and Department of Geosciences, University of Bremen, D-28359 Bremen, Germany.
authors.forename: Sitan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Xie
authors.forename: Julius S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Lipp
authors.forename: Gunter
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Wegener
authors.forename: Timothy G
authors.initials: TG
authors.lastname: Ferdelman
authors.forename: Kai-Uwe
authors.initials: KU
authors.lastname: Hinrichs
mesh_terms: D001105:Archaea / Q000254:growth & development / Q000378:metabolism*; D001419:Bacteria / Q000378:metabolism; D018533:Biomass; D003198:Computer Simulation; D004463:Ecology; D004777:Environment; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000379:methods; D005227:Fatty Acids / Q000378:metabolism; D005580:Fossils; D019015:Geologic Sediments / Q000382:microbiology; D005995:Glyceryl Ethers / Q000378:metabolism*; D006017:Glycolipids / Q000378:metabolism*; D050356:Lipid Metabolism; D010743:Phospholipids / Q000378:metabolism; D012623:Seawater / Q000382:microbiology; D013696:Temperature; D013997:Time Factors; D014871:Water Microbiology
chemical_list: D005227:Fatty Acids; D005995:Glyceryl Ethers; D006017:Glycolipids; D010743:Phospholipids