Marine carbon burial enhanced by microbial carbonate formation at hydrocarbon seeps

DOI

Some of the carbon removed from Earth's surface is stored within authigenic carbonate in marine sediments. Methane seeps are crucial sites of global marine carbon cycling sustaining microbial activity, enabling carbonate formation and the transfer of methane-derived carbon to the geosphere. Carbon sequestration rates depend on carbonate precipitation rate, which can be accelerated by mat-forming microorganisms that are ubiquitous at methane seeps and other Earth surface environments today. We investigate a 5-m-long drill core from an active methane seep at 1500 m water depth in the South China Sea with an exceptional abundance of pink and clear aragonite cement derived from the sulphate-driven anaerobic oxidation of methane, yet both cements precipitated under different conditions. Phase-specific 230Th/U-based ages, lipid biomarker compositions, and calcium isotope data suggest that pink aragonite is a product of in situ biofilm mineralization. First estimated precipitation rates of these individual cements in the seep carbonates range from 0.04 cm/ka for clear aragonite to 1.0 cm/ka for pink aragonite, suggesting an up to 25-fold increase in precipitation rates associated with biofilm mineralization. These results provide first kinetic constraints for future quantitative carbon cycle models, emphasizing the role of biofilms in accelerating carbon sequestration in marine authigenic carbonates.

Identifier
DOI https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.974130
Related Identifier References https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gca.2019.02.017
Related Identifier References https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nimb.2023.04.003
Related Identifier References https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gca.2013.02.002
Related Identifier References https://doi.org/10.1016/S0016-7037(99)00177-5
Related Identifier References https://doi.org/10.1029/2022GC010652
Related Identifier References https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemgeo.2017.10.036
Metadata Access https://ws.pangaea.de/oai/provider?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=datacite4&identifier=oai:pangaea.de:doi:10.1594/PANGAEA.974130
Provenance
Creator Smrzka, Daniel ORCID logo; Tseng, Yiting ORCID logo; Zwicker, Jennifer ORCID logo; Schröder-Ritzrau, Andrea ORCID logo; Frank, Norbert ORCID logo; Schmitt, Anne-Désirée; Pape, Thomas ORCID logo; Birgel, Daniel; Peckmann, Jörn ORCID logo; Lin, Saulwood ORCID logo; Bohrmann, Gerhard ORCID logo
Publisher PANGAEA
Publication Year 2024
Funding Reference Federal Ministry of Education and Research https://doi.org/10.13039/501100002347 Crossref Funder ID 03G0288A https://www.marum.de/SO266.page TaiDrill – SO266
Rights Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International; Data access is restricted (moratorium, sensitive data, license constraints); https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
OpenAccess false
Representation
Resource Type Bundled Publication of Datasets; Collection
Format application/zip
Size 4 datasets
Discipline Earth System Research
Spatial Coverage (119.800 LON, 22.058 LAT)