Inefficient microbial production of refractory dissolved organic matter in the ocean

Helena Osterholz (), Jutta Niggemann, Helge-Ansgar Giebel, Meinhard Simon and Thorsten Dittmar
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Helena Osterholz: Institute for Chemistry and Biology of the Marine Environment, Carl von Ossietzky University
Jutta Niggemann: Institute for Chemistry and Biology of the Marine Environment, Carl von Ossietzky University
Helge-Ansgar Giebel: Institute for Chemistry and Biology of the Marine Environment, Carl von Ossietzky University
Meinhard Simon: Institute for Chemistry and Biology of the Marine Environment, Carl von Ossietzky University
Thorsten Dittmar: Institute for Chemistry and Biology of the Marine Environment, Carl von Ossietzky University

Nature Communications, 2015, vol. 6, issue 1, 1-8

Abstract: Abstract Dissolved organic matter (DOM) in the oceans constitutes a major carbon pool involved in global biogeochemical cycles. More than 96% of the marine DOM resists microbial degradation for thousands of years. The composition of this refractory DOM (RDOM) exhibits a molecular signature ubiquitously detected in the deep oceans. Surprisingly efficient microbial transformation of labile into stable forms of DOM has been shown previously, implying that microorganisms apparently produce far more RDOM than needed to sustain the global pool. Here we show, by assessing the microbial formation and transformation of DOM in unprecedented molecular detail for 3 years, that most of the microbial DOM is different from RDOM in the ocean. Only

Date: 2015
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DOI: 10.1038/ncomms8422

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