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Sulphur and carbon isotopes as tracers of past sub-seafloor microbial activity

Microbial life below the seafloor has changed over geological time, but these changes are often not obvious, as they are not recorded in the sediment. Sulphur (S) isotope values in pyrite extracted from a Plio- to Holocene sequence of the Peru Margin (Ocean Drilling Program, ODP, Site 1229) show a d...

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Autores principales: Meister, Patrick, Brunner, Benjamin, Picard, Aude, Böttcher, Michael E., Jørgensen, Bo Barker
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group UK 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6345876/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30679710
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-36943-7
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author Meister, Patrick
Brunner, Benjamin
Picard, Aude
Böttcher, Michael E.
Jørgensen, Bo Barker
author_facet Meister, Patrick
Brunner, Benjamin
Picard, Aude
Böttcher, Michael E.
Jørgensen, Bo Barker
author_sort Meister, Patrick
collection PubMed
description Microbial life below the seafloor has changed over geological time, but these changes are often not obvious, as they are not recorded in the sediment. Sulphur (S) isotope values in pyrite extracted from a Plio- to Holocene sequence of the Peru Margin (Ocean Drilling Program, ODP, Site 1229) show a down-core pattern that correlates with the pattern of carbon (C) isotopes in diagenetic dolomite. Early formation of the pyrite is indicated by the mineralogical composition of iron, showing a high degree of pyritization throughout the sedimentary sequence. Hence, the S-record could not have been substantially overprinted by later pyrite formation. The S- and C-isotope profiles show, thus, evidence for two episodes of enhanced microbial methane production with a very shallow sulphate-methane transition zone. The events of high activity are correlated with zones of elevated organic C content in the stratigraphic sequence. Our results demonstrate how isotopic signatures preserved in diagenetic mineral phases provide information on changes of past biogeochemical activity in a dynamic sub-seafloor biosphere.
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spelling pubmed-63458762019-01-29 Sulphur and carbon isotopes as tracers of past sub-seafloor microbial activity Meister, Patrick Brunner, Benjamin Picard, Aude Böttcher, Michael E. Jørgensen, Bo Barker Sci Rep Article Microbial life below the seafloor has changed over geological time, but these changes are often not obvious, as they are not recorded in the sediment. Sulphur (S) isotope values in pyrite extracted from a Plio- to Holocene sequence of the Peru Margin (Ocean Drilling Program, ODP, Site 1229) show a down-core pattern that correlates with the pattern of carbon (C) isotopes in diagenetic dolomite. Early formation of the pyrite is indicated by the mineralogical composition of iron, showing a high degree of pyritization throughout the sedimentary sequence. Hence, the S-record could not have been substantially overprinted by later pyrite formation. The S- and C-isotope profiles show, thus, evidence for two episodes of enhanced microbial methane production with a very shallow sulphate-methane transition zone. The events of high activity are correlated with zones of elevated organic C content in the stratigraphic sequence. Our results demonstrate how isotopic signatures preserved in diagenetic mineral phases provide information on changes of past biogeochemical activity in a dynamic sub-seafloor biosphere. Nature Publishing Group UK 2019-01-24 /pmc/articles/PMC6345876/ /pubmed/30679710 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-36943-7 Text en © The Author(s) 2019 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
spellingShingle Article
Meister, Patrick
Brunner, Benjamin
Picard, Aude
Böttcher, Michael E.
Jørgensen, Bo Barker
Sulphur and carbon isotopes as tracers of past sub-seafloor microbial activity
title Sulphur and carbon isotopes as tracers of past sub-seafloor microbial activity
title_full Sulphur and carbon isotopes as tracers of past sub-seafloor microbial activity
title_fullStr Sulphur and carbon isotopes as tracers of past sub-seafloor microbial activity
title_full_unstemmed Sulphur and carbon isotopes as tracers of past sub-seafloor microbial activity
title_short Sulphur and carbon isotopes as tracers of past sub-seafloor microbial activity
title_sort sulphur and carbon isotopes as tracers of past sub-seafloor microbial activity
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6345876/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30679710
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-36943-7
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