Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Lever, Mark A.
• Rouxel, Olivier
• Alt, Jeffrey C.
• Shimizu, Nobumichi
• Ono, Shuhei
• Coggon, Rosalind M.
• Shanks, Wayne C.
• Lapham, Laura
• Elvert, Marcus
• Prieto-Mollar, Xavier
• Hinrichs, Kai-Uwe
• Inagaki, Fumio
• Teske, Andreas

Titel

Evidence for Microbial Carbon and Sulfur Cycling in Deeply Buried Ridge Flank Basalt

Ist Teil von

• Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science), 2013-03, Vol.339 (6125), p.1305-1308

Ort / Verlag

United States: American Association for the Advancement of Science

Erscheinungsjahr

2013

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

Science Online_科学在线

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Sediment-covered basalt on the flanks of mid-ocean ridges constitutes most of Earth's oceanic crust, but the composition and metabolic function of its microbial ecosystem are largely unknown. By drilling into 3.5-million-year-old subseafloor basalt, we demonstrated the presence of methane- and sulfur-cycling microbes on the eastern flank of the Juan de Fuca Ridge. Depth horizons with functional genes indicative of methane-cycling and sulfate-reducing microorganisms are enriched in solid-phase sulfur and total organic carbon, host δ 13 C- and δ 34 S-isotopic values with a biological imprint, and show clear signs of microbial activity when incubated in the laboratory. Downcore changes in carbon and sulfur cycling show discrete geochemical intervals with chemoautotrophic δ 13 C signatures locally attenuated by heterotrophic metabolism.