Sulphate reduction in oxic and sub-oxic North-East Atlantic sediments

• Published in: FEMS Microbiology Letters
• Main Authors: Battersby, N.S., Malcolm, S.J., Brown, C.M., Stanley, S.O.
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford University Press 1985
• Subjects: Articles; North East Atlantic
• Online Access: http://femsec.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/short/1/4/225; https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1574-6968.1985.tb01153.x

Oxic and sub-oxic N.-E. Atlantic sediments were examined for sulphate-reducing activity. Oxygen and/or nitrate reduction are probably the dominant mineralisation processes in the abyssal plain sediment studied. A low rate of sulphate reduction (0.1 nmol SO2− 4 /ml/day) was recorded in the surface 5 cm of the continental slope sediment, together with the presence of a range of sulphate-reducing bacteria (SRB). A higher activity of sulphate reduction (2.2 nmol SO2− 4 /ml/day) occurred in the continental shelf sediment which led to a small decrease in pore water sulphate and an increase in titration alkalinity. This sediment contained approx. 102–103 acetate, lactate and propionate oxidising SRB/ml. No low- M r organic acids were detected in these sediments. However, amendment with 75 μM acetate stimulated sulphate-reducing activity in the shelf sediment.