WS 2005/06 Sediments

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(c) Heribert Cypionka, www.icbm.de/pmbio

Sediments

WS 2005/06

Sand Residues of

algae and

mussels Diatoms

(brown)

FeS Sulfur

Themen und Termine

•10.01.06 VL01 Cypionka: Was sind Sedimente?

•12.01.06 VL02 Cypionka: Anaerobe Stoffwechselprozesse

•17.01.06 VL03 Cypionka: Energiestoffwechsel

•19.01.06 VL04 Könneke: Kultivierung von Sedimentbakterien

•24.01.06 VL05 Könneke: Anpassung an Umweltbedingungen

•26.01.06 VL06 Engelen: Molekularbiologische Methoden

•31.01.06 VL07 Engelen: Quantifizierung von Mikroorganismen

•02.02.06 VL08 Engelen: Probenahme auf See

Themen und Termine

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(c) Heribert Cypionka, www.icbm.de/pmbio Literature

Recommended books

- Brock. Biology of Microorganisms

- Cypionka H., Grundlagen der Mikrobiologie

- Ehrlich H. L. (1996) Geomicrobiology, Marcel Dekker, New York

- Wolfgang Fritsche (2002) Umwelt-Mikrobiologie. Grundlagen und Anwendungen.

Spektrum Akad. Verlag

- Richard Y. Morita (1997) Bacteria in Oligotrophic Environments, Chapman & Hall - L.A. Meyer-Reil, M. Köster (1993) Mikrobiologie des Meeresbodens. Fischer - K. Alef (1991) Methodenhandbuch Bodenmikrobiologie. Ecomed

- Daniel M. Alongi (1998) Coastal Ecosystem Processes. CRC Press

- Paul F. Kemp et al. (1993) Handbook of Methods in Aquatic Microbial Ecology.

Lewis

- John H. Paul (ed.) (2001) Methods in Microbiology. Vol. 30 Marine Microbiology.

Academic Press

Literature online

Literature on the web

- http://www.icbm.de/pmbio/litlinks.htm (many journals!)

- http://portal.isiknowledge.com (Web of Science - from University IP) - http://scholar.google.com (Science at Google)

- http://www.grundlagen-der-mikrobiologie.de (Glossary, figs., questions ...)

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(c) Heribert Cypionka, www.icbm.de/pmbio Questions

Which types of Sediments are known?

What is the origin of sediment material?

How fast do they accumulate?

What are stromatolites and banded iron formations?

Which properties characterize sediments?

Which processes do occur within them?

How does the temperature change in the water column and in the sediment?

Which organisms form sediments?

How does new sediment form and old sediment vanish?

(c) Heribert Cypionka, www.icbm.de/pmbio What are sediments

What are sediments?

latin: sedere = sit

sedimentum = what has settled down

• Particulate material accumulated

on the floor (cover 70 % of the earth's surface)

-- of lakes (lacustrine, limnic) -- of rivers (fluvial)

-- of the sea (marine)

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(c) Heribert Cypionka, www.icbm.de/pmbio Origin of sediment material

What is the origin of sediment material?

-- aeolian = via the air

-- terrigenous = from the land

-- marine, autochthonous = from water column

Aeolian particles

Sahara sand coming across the alpes

Sahara sand above the Atlantic Ocean

Aeolian input to sediments

• Input of minerals, especially Fe as an important limiting factor

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(c) Heribert Cypionka, www.icbm.de/pmbio Aeolian particles (2)

Ash eruptions from vulcanoes

Ash layer in Mediterranean sediment

(c) Heribert Cypionka, www.icbm.de/pmbio Terrigenous sediments (2)

Lena river delta (Sibiria)

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(c) Heribert Cypionka, www.icbm.de/pmbio Varves

Varves

Terrigenous sediments (3)

Peat in the backbarrier tidal

flat of Spiekeroog, a former

moor

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(c) Heribert Cypionka, www.icbm.de/pmbio Hang slip

Mediterranean sediment disturbed by hang slip Disturbed sediment

(c) Heribert Cypionka, www.icbm.de/pmbio Marine primary production

Euphoticzone <= 200 m

Average production of the oceans:

69 g C m^-2a^-1

Note: 1 plate of chocolate per year and m²

Marine primary production

marine:

146 10⁹t CO₂a^-1 terrestrial:

129 10⁹t CO₂a^-1

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(c) Heribert Cypionka, www.icbm.de/pmbio Sedimentation

from Meyer-Reil Only 0.1 to 1 % of the primary production reach the sediment. Often marine sediments grow only a few mm per 1000 years.

How fast do sediments accumulate?

Microbial mats

Farbstreifen-Sandwatt

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(c) Heribert Cypionka, www.icbm.de/pmbio Stromatolites

Stromatolite (pillow stone) 1.3 Ga

Ga = Giga years or billion years

Attention:

Engl. Billion = german Milliarden

Shark Bay, Australia

Undisturbed development in the absence of grazers

Periodic changes between reducing and oxidizing conditions

Oxidation of Fe²⁺to Fe³⁺by (oxygenic?) photosynthesis, Precipitation of oxidized iron salts

Banded Iron Formations(BIF's, gebänderte Eisensteine ) without microfossils, but showing isotope fractionation of

12C/¹³C as indicator for biological activity

Ditch, Oldenburg University BIFs

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(c) Heribert Cypionka, www.icbm.de/pmbio Sediment properties

- TOC (total organic carbon): 0.2 - 2 %, sapropels up to 30 % - 50% carbonaceous Sediments (50 - 90 % TIC), less with silicates

(Diatoms etc.)

- Water: porosity and permeability decreasing with depth and age - Varying particle size: mud, silt 63 - 200 µm, sand > 63 µm, - Varying density: ~1.5 to ~2.5 g/cm³

- Oxygen: upper mm to meters - Nitrate: slightly below oxygen - Ammonia as a product of degradation

- Fe³⁺, Mn⁴⁺-> Fe²⁺, Mn²⁺ with increasing depth - Sulfides

- Methane hydrates

By which properties are sediments characterized?

Tidal flat sediment

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(c) Heribert Cypionka, www.icbm.de/pmbio Carbon in Pacific sediment

Carbon in Pacific sediment

(c) Heribert Cypionka, www.icbm.de/pmbio Mediterranean sapropels

2407-2410

Meteor Leg M40-4 (1998)

Sapropel layers with up to 30 % organic carbon and increased microbial activity

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(c) Heribert Cypionka, www.icbm.de/pmbio Porosity

Porosity

Tidal flat sediment (2)

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(c) Heribert Cypionka, www.icbm.de/pmbio Tidal Flats

Janssand

Neuharlingersieler Nacken

Gradients!

How can we detect processes inside the sediment column?

(c) Heribert Cypionka, www.icbm.de/pmbio Sand-

korn Seawater

Diffusive boundary layer

Oxygen

Sediment

Oxygen profile

^Gradients

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(c) Heribert Cypionka, www.icbm.de/pmbio Sulfate-methane interfaces

Sulfate-methane interfaces

ODP Site 1229 - Methanogenesis and sulfate reduction as dominant

terminal processes

- Anaerobic methane oxidation as important process

Methane hydrates

Methane hydrate (ODP Site 1230)

The most important reservoir of reduced carbon on earth

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(c) Heribert Cypionka, www.icbm.de/pmbio Sediment under pressure

Methane-bearing deep- sea sediment

1 bar pressure increase per 10 m water depth

(c) Heribert Cypionka, www.icbm.de/pmbio Sediments at ODP Site 1231

Sediment slurries at ODP Site 1231

Oxidized iron and manganese as important electron accptors in low-carbon sediments

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(c) Heribert Cypionka, www.icbm.de/pmbio Organisms

Sediment-forming organisms

- carbonates - silicates

Coccolithophorids

Cell size: 2-20 m m

Cell wall: CaCO ₃coccoliths or scales

Chloroplasts: none, single thylakoid membrane

Photo-pigments: chlorophyll a

& c, carotenoids

Reproduction: simple cell division, rarely sexual reproduction

Ecological roles: biflagellated, produce chalk deposits Common genus: Emiliana

Emiliana huxleyi

Botanical Bulletin of Academia Sinica,

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(c) Heribert Cypionka, www.icbm.de/pmbio Foraminifera

lat. foramen = hole, lat. ferre = carry

Deutsch: Foraminiferen, Kammerlinge, Klasse der Rhizopoda (Wurzelfüßer)

Foraminifera

(c) Heribert Cypionka, www.icbm.de/pmbio Diatoms

Diatoms (Kieselalgen)

Pacific sediment (Peru margin) North Sea diatoms (after acid treatment)

Pacific diatoms

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(c) Heribert Cypionka, www.icbm.de/pmbio Radiolarians

Radiolarians (Strahlentierchen)

From Haeckel: "Kunstformen der Natur"

Silicoflagellate skeleton

Temperature

Sediment Temperature

-> Seafloor mostly around 0 - 2 °C

-> Temperature increase with depth, depending on geological parameters

-> Hydrothermal vents with temperatures above 300 °C

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(c) Heribert Cypionka, www.icbm.de/pmbio Oxygen isotopes

-> Natural ¹⁸O:¹⁶O ratio about 1:500, determined in microfossils, that use O for scale formation (benthic and planktonic foraminifers, coccolithophorids)

-> Variation of delta ¹⁸O values controlled by temperature: preferred evaporation of light H₂¹⁶O molecules compared to heavier H₂¹⁸O.

-> Cold air carries relatively less H₂¹⁸O, which remains enriched in the water.

-> 1% increase of delta ¹⁸O corresponds to about 1 °C temperature decrease.

Oxygen isotope fractionation as proxy for the ocean water temperature

How old are sediments?

^Pangaea

Only 200 Mio. years before present there was only one continent, Pangaea

Online Biology Book Mike Farabee

www.emc.maricopa.edu/faculty/

farabee/BIOBK/BioBookTOC.ht ml

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(c) Heribert Cypionka, www.icbm.de/pmbio Plate tectonics

Plate tectonics

Hydrothermal vents (1)

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(c) Heribert Cypionka, www.icbm.de/pmbio Hydrothermal vents (2)

• Mid-oceanic ridges (spreading centers) form the longest mountain chain on earth.

Inorganic reduced compounds are released, e.g., 30 Mio t H₂S per year (Ocean water moves through the earth crust on average in 8 Mio a)

• Hydrothermal vent production, 0.02 % of total primary production = 10 % of the seafloor production

• Rich communities based of bacterial chemosynthesis, e.g. Riftia pachyptila: huge worm without mouth and after, living from symbiotic autotrophic H₂S oxidizers

• Energy from the oxidation of H₂S, H₂, Fe²⁺etc. with oxygen (from photosynthesis!) Hydrothermal vents (3)