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Terrigenous dissolved organic matter persists in the energy-limited deep groundwaters of the Fennoscandian Shield.

ABSTRACT: The deep terrestrial biosphere encompasses the life below the photosynthesis-fueled surface that perseveres in typically nutrient and energy depleted anoxic groundwaters. The composition and cycling of this vast dissolved organic matter (DOM) reservoir relevant to the global carbon cycle remains to be deciphered. Here we show that recent Baltic Sea-influenced to ancient pre-Holocene saline Fennoscandian Shield deep bedrock fracture waters carried DOM with a strong terrigenous signature and varying contributions from abiotic and biotic processes. Removal of easily degraded carbon at the surface-to-groundwater transition and corresponding microbial community assembly processes likely resulted in the highly similar DOM signatures across the notably different water types that selected for a core microbiome. In combination with the aliphatic character, depleted δ¹³C signatures in DOM indicated recent microbial production in the oldest, saline groundwater. Our study revealed the persistence of terrestrially-sourced carbon in severely energy limited deep continental groundwaters supporting deep microbial life.

SUBMITTER: Osterholz H

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9385861 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Terrigenous dissolved organic matter persists in the energy-limited deep groundwaters of the Fennoscandian Shield.

Osterholz Helena H Turner Stephanie S Alakangas Linda J LJ Tullborg Eva-Lena EL Dittmar Thorsten T Kalinowski Birgitta E BE Dopson Mark M

Nature communications 20220817 1

The deep terrestrial biosphere encompasses the life below the photosynthesis-fueled surface that perseveres in typically nutrient and energy depleted anoxic groundwaters. The composition and cycling of this vast dissolved organic matter (DOM) reservoir relevant to the global carbon cycle remains to be deciphered. Here we show that recent Baltic Sea-influenced to ancient pre-Holocene saline Fennoscandian Shield deep bedrock fracture waters carried DOM with a strong terrigenous signature and varyi ...[more]

PMID: 35977924

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Project description:The biodegradability of terrigenous dissolved organic matter (tDOM) exported to the sea has a major impact on the global carbon cycle, but our understanding of tDOM bioavailability is fragmentary. In this study, the effects of preparative tDOM isolation on microbial decomposition were investigated in incubation experiments consisting of mesocosms containing mesohaline water from the Baltic Sea. Dissolved organic carbon (DOC) consumption, molecular DOM composition, bacterial activities, and shifts in bacterial community structure were compared between mesocosms supplemented with riverine tDOM, either as filtered, particle-free river water or as a concentrate obtained by lyophilization/tangential ultrafiltration, and those containing only Baltic Sea water or river water. As shown using ultra-high-resolution mass spectrometry (15 Tesla Fourier-transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry, FT-ICR-MS) covering approximately 4600 different DOM compounds, the three DOM preparation protocols resulted in distinct patterns of molecular DOM composition. However, despite DOC losses of 4-16% and considerable bacterial production, there was no significant change in DOM composition during the 28-day experiment. Moreover, tDOM addition affected neither DOC degradation nor bacterial dynamics significantly, regardless of the tDOM preparation. This result suggested that the introduced tDOM was largely not bioavailable, at least on the temporal scale of our experiment, and that the observed bacterial activity and DOC decomposition mainly reflected the degradation of unknown, labile, colloidal and low-molecular weight DOM, both of which escape the analytical window of FT-ICR-MS. In contrast to the different tDOM preparations, the initial bacterial inoculum and batch culture conditions determined bacterial community succession and superseded the effects of tDOM addition. The uncoupling of tDOM and bacterial dynamics suggests that mesohaline bacterial communities cannot efficiently utilize tDOM and that in subarctic estuaries other factors are responsible for the removal of imported tDOM.

Dataset Information

Terrigenous dissolved organic matter persists in the energy-limited deep groundwaters of the Fennoscandian Shield.

Publications

Terrigenous dissolved organic matter persists in the energy-limited deep groundwaters of the Fennoscandian Shield.

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