IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v6y2015i1d10.1038_ncomms8422.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Inefficient microbial production of refractory dissolved organic matter in the ocean

Author

Listed:
  • 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)

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

Suggested Citation

  • Helena Osterholz & Jutta Niggemann & Helge-Ansgar Giebel & Meinhard Simon & Thorsten Dittmar, 2015. "Inefficient microbial production of refractory dissolved organic matter in the ocean," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 6(1), pages 1-8, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:6:y:2015:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms8422
    DOI: 10.1038/ncomms8422
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms8422
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/ncomms8422?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Mengzhi Ji & Jiayin Zhou & Yan Li & Kai Ma & Wen Song & Yueyue Li & Jizhong Zhou & Qichao Tu, 2024. "Biodiversity of mudflat intertidal viromes along the Chinese coasts," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-14, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:6:y:2015:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms8422. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.