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Biogeochemical processes in subseafloor sediments can notably change over geological timescales due to variations in oceanographic, climatic and/or depositional conditions. To improve the understanding of changing biogeochemical processes on longer timescales, we investigated ~1.2 km deep and up to 120°C hot subseafloor sediments from the Nankai Trough offshore Japan (Site C0023), drilled during International Ocean Discovery Program Expedition 370 (Temperature Limit of the Deep Biosphere off Muroto)1. Over the past 15 Ma, the sediments have moved several hundreds of kilometers from the Shikoku Basin to the Nankai Trough due to tectonic motion of the Philippine Sea plate2. During this migration, the depositional, geochemical and thermal conditions have significantly changed. By combining geochemical data, sedimentation rates and reactive transport modeling, we reconstructed the evolution of biogeochemical processes in sediments at Site C0023. A distinctive feature at Site C0023 is an inverse sulfate-methane transition (SMT) at ~730 m depth with a broad sulfate-methane overlap zone of ~100 m, suggesting inefficient anaerobic oxidation of methane (AOM). This depth interval corresponds to a temperature of 80° to 85°C, which coincides with the known temperature limit of AOM-performing microbial communities3,4. Our model results demonstrate that the inverse SMT was formed at ~2.5 Ma after the onset of biogenic methanogenesis and AOM as a consequence of enhanced organic carbon burial. Depth-integrated AOM rates derived from the model markedly decrease since the beginning of trench-style deposition and the associated rapid heating of the sediments at ~0.4 Ma, indicating that the microbial activity of AOM-performing communities at the inverse SMT has already started to cease and the SMT is about to disappear. This successive fading of the SMT and, thus, a decrease in the efficiency of the microbial methane sink is ultimately related to the temperature increase beyond the thr

Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2021. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology 36(7), (2021): e2020PA004088, https://doi.org/10.1029/2020PA004088., We reconstruct deep water-mass salinities and spatial distributions in the western North Atlantic during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM, 19–26 ka), a period when atmospheric CO2 was significantly lower than it is today. A reversal in the LGM Atlantic meridional bottom water salinity gradient has been hypothesized for several LGM water-mass reconstructions. Such a reversal has the potential to influence climate, ocean circulation, and atmospheric CO2 by increasing the thermal energy and carbon storage capacity of the deep ocean. To test this hypothesis, we reconstructed LGM bottom water salinity based on sedimentary porewater chloride profiles in a north-south transect of piston cores collected from the deep western North Atlantic. LGM bottom water salinity in the deep western North Atlantic determined by the density-based method is 3.41–3.99 ± 0.15% higher than modern values at these sites. This increase is consistent with: (a) the 3.6% global average salinity change expected from eustatic sea level rise, (b) a northward expansion of southern sourced deep water, (c) shoaling of northern sourced deep water, and (d) a reversal of the Atlantic's north-south deep water salinity gradient during the LGM., This work was supported by the US National Science Foundation (grant numbers 1433150 and 1537485)., 2021-10-24

© The Author(s), 2021. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Sauvage, J. F., Flinders, A., Spivack, A. J., Pockalny, R., Dunlea, A. G., Anderson, C. H., Smith, D. C., Murray, R. W., & D'Hondt, S. The contribution of water radiolysis to marine sedimentary life. Nature Communications, 12(1), (2021): 1297, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-21218-z., Water radiolysis continuously produces H2 and oxidized chemicals in wet sediment and rock. Radiolytic H2 has been identified as the primary electron donor (food) for microorganisms in continental aquifers kilometers below Earth’s surface. Radiolytic products may also be significant for sustaining life in subseafloor sediment and subsurface environments of other planets. However, the extent to which most subsurface ecosystems rely on radiolytic products has been poorly constrained, due to incomplete understanding of radiolytic chemical yields in natural environments. Here we show that all common marine sediment types catalyse radiolytic H2 production, amplifying yields by up to 27X relative to pure water. In electron equivalents, the global rate of radiolytic H2 production in marine sediment appears to be 1-2% of the global organic flux to the seafloor. However, most organic matter is consumed at or near the seafloor, whereas radiolytic H2 is produced at all sediment depths. Comparison of radiolytic H2 consumption rates to organic oxidation rates suggests that water radiolysis is the principal source of biologically accessible energy for microbial communities in marine sediment older than a few million years. Where water permeates similarly catalytic material on other worlds, life may also be sustained by water radiolysis., This project was funded by the US National Science Foundation (through grant NSF-OCE-1130735 and the Center for Deep Dark Energy Biosphere Investigations [C-DEBI; grant NSF-OCE-0939564]); the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (grant NNX12AD65G); the U.S. Science Support Program, IODP; and a Schlanger Ocean Drilling Fellowship to J.F.S. This is a contribution to the Deep Carbon Observatory (DCO). It is C-DEBI publication 553.

Microorganisms in marine subsurface sediments substantially contribute to global biomass.Sediments warmer than 40°C account for roughly half the marine sediment volume, but theprocesses mediated by microbial populations in these hard-to-access environments are poorlyunderstood. We investigated microbial life in up to 1.2-kilometer-deep and up to 120°C hotsediments in the Nankai Trough subduction zone. Above 45°C, concentrations of vegetativecells drop two orders of magnitude and endospores become more than 6000 times more abundantthan vegetative cells. Methane is biologically produced and oxidized until sediments reach 80°to 85°C. In 100° to 120°C sediments, isotopic evidence and increased cell concentrationsdemonstrate the activity of acetate-degrading hyperthermophiles. Above 45°C, populated zonesalternate with zones up to 192 meters thick where microbes were undetectable

Dataset: Porewater Nitrogen, Porewater measurements of nitrate and nitrite concentration and N and O isotopic ratios (d15N and d18O) collected from sites 3 and 10 on the North Atlantic Long Core Cruise R/V Knorr KN223 from October to December 2014. For a complete list of measurements, refer to the full dataset description in the supplemental file 'Dataset_description.pdf'. The most current version of this dataset is available at: https://www.bco-dmo.org/dataset/748792, NSF Division of Ocean Sciences (NSF OCE) OCE-0939564, NSF Division of Ocean Sciences (NSF OCE) OCE-1433150, NSF Division of Ocean Sciences (NSF OCE) OCE-1537485

© The Author(s), 2019. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial License 4.0 (CC BY-NC).. The definitive version was published in Vuillemin, A., Wankel, S. D., Coskun, Ö. K., Magritsch, T., Vargas, S., Estes, E. R., Spivack, A. J., Smith, D. C., Pockalny, R., Murray, R. W., D'Hondt, S., & Orsi, W. D. Archaea dominate oxic subseafloor communities over multimillion-year time scales. Science Advances, 5(6), (2019): eaaw4108, doi: 10.1126/sciadv.aaw4108., Ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA) dominate microbial communities throughout oxic subseafloor sediment deposited over millions of years in the North Atlantic Ocean. Rates of nitrification correlated with the abundance of these dominant AOA populations, whose metabolism is characterized by ammonia oxidation, mixotrophic utilization of organic nitrogen, deamination, and the energetically efficient chemolithoautotrophic hydroxypropionate/hydroxybutyrate carbon fixation cycle. These AOA thus have the potential to couple mixotrophic and chemolithoautotrophic metabolism via mixotrophic deamination of organic nitrogen, followed by oxidation of the regenerated ammonia for additional energy to fuel carbon fixation. This metabolic feature likely reduces energy loss and improves AOA fitness under energy-starved, oxic conditions, thereby allowing them to outcompete other taxa for millions of years., This work was supported primarily by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) project OR 417/1-1 granted to W.D.O. Preliminary work was supported by the Center for Dark Energy Biosphere Investigations project OCE-0939564 also granted to W.D.O. Publication of the manuscript was supported by the LMU Mentoring Program. The expedition was funded by the US National Science Foundation through grant NSF-OCE-1433150 to A.J.S, S.D., and R.P. R.W.M. led the expedition. This is a contribution of the Deep Carbon Observatory (DCO). S.D.W. acknowledges partial support from NASA Exobiology (NNX15AM04G). This is Center for Dark Energy Biosphere Investigations (C-DEBI) publication number 463. Portions of this material are based on work supported while R.W.M. was serving at the National Science Foundation. A portion of this work was performed as part of the LMU Masters Program “Geobiology and Paleobiology” (MGAP).

Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2018. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Isotopic constraints on nitrogen transformation rates in the deep sedimentary marine biosphere. Global Biogeochemical Cycles, 32, (2018):1688–1702., doi: 10.1029/2018GB005948., Little is known about the nature of microbial community activity contributing to the cycling of nitrogen in organic-poor sediments underlying the expansive oligotrophic ocean gyres. Here we use pore water concentrations and stable N and O isotope measurements of nitrate and nitrite to constrain rates of nitrogen cycling processes over a 34-m profile from the deep North Atlantic spanning fully oxic to anoxic conditions. Using a 1-D reaction-diffusion model to predict the distribution of nitrogen cycling rates, results converge on two distinct scenarios: (1) an exceptionally high degree of coupling between nitrite oxidation and nitrate reduction near the top of the anoxic zone or (2) an unusually large N isotope effect (~60‰) for nitrate reduction that is decoupled from the corresponding O isotope effect, which is possibly explained by enzyme-level interconversion between nitrite and nitrate., Samples analyzed for this study were collected during the final expedition of the RV Knorr, KN223. The expedition would not have been possible without the captain and crew of the RV Knorr and the efforts of the shipboard science party. We would like to acknowledge Robert Pockalny for planning and facilitating the expedition. Inorganic geochemistry sample collection, processing, and analysis were performed shipboard by Arthur Spivack,Dennis Graham, Chloe Anderson, Emily Estes, Kira Homola, Claire McKinley, Theodore Present, and Justine Sauvage. Coring capabilities were provided by the Oregon State University and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute Coring Facilities, directed and funded by the U. S. National Science Foundation (NSF) Ship Facilities Program. The cored materials and discrete samples from the expedition are curated and stored by the Marine Geological Samples Laboratory at the University of Rhode Island, codirected by Rebecca Robinson and Katherine Kelly and funded by the NSF Ocean Sciences Division. The nutrient and isotope data from pore waters in this study will be available at The Biological and Chemical Data Management Office (https://www.bcodmo.org/project/567401). This project was partially funded by an NSF CDEBI postdoctoral fellowship to C. Buchwald. Portions of this material are based upon work supported while R. W. M. was serving at the National Science Foundation., 2019-04-18

In the version of the Article originally published, incorrect units were used in the sediment thickness grid used in the integration of sedimentary organic carbon content. This mistake resulted in an overestimate of the oxic sedimentary organic carbon reservoir by three orders of magnitude.

Subseafloor microbial activities are central to Earth’s biogeochemical cycles. They control Earth’s surface oxidation and major aspects of ocean chemistry. They affect climate on long timescales and play major roles in forming and destroying economic resources. In this review, we evaluate present understanding of subseafloor microbes and their activities, identify research gaps, and recommend approaches to filling those gaps. Our synthesis suggests that chemical diffusion rates and reaction affinities play a primary role in controlling rates of subseafloor activities. Fundamental aspects of subseafloor communities, including features that enable their persistence at low catabolic rates for millions of years, remain unknown.

Little is known about the nature of microbial community activity contributing to the cycling of nitrogen in organic-poor sediments underlying the expansive oligotrophic ocean gyres. Here we use pore water concentrations and stable N and O isotope measurements of nitrate and nitrite to constrain rates of nitrogen cycling processes over a 34-m profile from the deep North Atlantic spanning fully oxic to anoxic conditions. Using a 1-D reaction-diffusion model to predict the distribution of nitrogen cycling rates, results converge on two distinct scenarios: (1) an exceptionally high degree of coupling between nitrite oxidation and nitrate reduction near the top of the anoxic zone or (2) an unusually large N isotope effect (~60‰) for nitrate reduction that is decoupled from the corresponding O isotope effect, which is possibly explained by enzyme-level interconversion between nitrite and nitrate.