REU: The Kinetics of Organic Matter Diagenesis: Control byBiomass Dynamics or Polymer Lability

虽然微生物通常被认为是沉积物中有机质矿化的催化剂，但从静态或动态的角度来看，很少考虑微生物生物量的相对重要性。事实上，微生物生物量被认为是沉积物总有机质中可以忽略或不重要的组成部分。这一观点没有得到证实，很可能是不正确的。一些实验证据表明，生物量以前可能被低估了，生物量和生物合成与年度有机投入相比可能很大，在很大程度上，沉积有机质可能是浮游植物或其他来源投入矿化期间形成的生物量的中间产物或最终产物。这种观点与公认的教条有很大不同，后者将矿化仅仅视为原始藻类碎屑输入的不同部分的不同程度的函数。这一不稳定假设将通过确定1)岩心下部矿化动力学和2)有机埋藏或保存的程度来检验。

Although microorganisms have often been considered the catalysts of organic matter mineralization in sediments, little consideration has been given to the relative significance of microbial biomass, either from a static or dynamic perspective. In fact, microbial biomass is regarded as a negligible or inconsequential component of total sediment organic matter. This view has not been substantiated and may well be incorrect. Several lines of experimental evidence suggest that biomass may have been previously underestimated, that biomass and biosynthesis may be significant compared to annual organic inputs, and that to a large extent, sedimentary organic matter may be an intermediate or endproduct of biomass formed during the mineralization of inputs from phytoplanktonic or other sources. This view is substantially different from accepted dogma which treats mineralization solely as a function of the lability of different fractions of a the original algal detritus inputs. This lability hypothesis will be tested by determining 1) the kinetics of downcore mineralization and 2) the extent of organic burial or preservation.