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

虽然微生物经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意义。事实上，微生物生物量被认为是一个微不足道的或无关紧要的组成部分的总沉积物有机质。这种观点没有得到证实，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每年的有机输入相比可能很重要，并且在很大程度上，沉积有机质可能是浮游植物或其他来源的输入矿化过程中形成的生物量的中间或最终产物。这种观点与公认的教条有很大的不同，后者认为矿化仅仅是原始藻类碎屑输入的不同部分的不稳定性的函数。这种不稳定性假设将通过确定1)下岩心矿化动力学和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.