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Geochemical transition zone powering microbial growth in subsurface sediments.

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  • 1K.G. Jebsen Centre for Deep Sea Research, University of Bergen, 5007 Bergen, Norway; zhaorui087@gmail.com steffen.jorgensen@uib.no.

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PubMed
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Microbial life persists in deep ocean sediments. Anaerobic ammonium-oxidizing (anammox) bacteria grow in the Arctic Mid-Ocean Ridge, showing proliferation in specific zones linked to energy availability.

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Area of Science:

  • Marine microbiology
  • Geochemistry
  • Biogeochemical cycling

Background:

  • Marine sedimentary environments host vast microbial populations, often presumed to be in a non-growing state due to starvation.
  • Understanding microbial life and activity in these extreme, nutrient-limited environments is crucial for biogeochemical processes.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate in situ growth of microbial communities in ancient Arctic subsurface sediments.
  • To identify factors enabling microbial proliferation in nutrient-poor marine sediments.

Main Methods:

  • Analysis of microbial abundances using marker gene quantification in sediment cores.
  • Reconstruction and analysis of a dominant anammox bacterium's draft genome.
  • Assessment of microbial replication rates using the index of replication (iRep).

Main Results:

  • Significant in situ growth of anaerobic ammonium-oxidizing (anammox) bacteria was observed in ∼80,000-year-old Arctic subsurface sediments.
  • Bacterial proliferation was concentrated in the nitrate-ammonium transition zone (NATZ), showing a four-order-of-magnitude increase in abundance.
  • Genomic analysis revealed a dominant anammox species, *Candidatus Scalindua sediminis*, with a high replication index (1.32) and a mixotrophic lifestyle.

Conclusions:

  • Specific microbial groups, like anammox bacteria, can proliferate in situ under favorable conditions, even after geological timescales of survival.
  • Microbial growth is quantitatively linked to increased energy availability, primarily from intensified anammox reactions.
  • The findings have significant implications for understanding nitrogen cycling in marine sedimentary environments.