Sulfur cycling at natural hydrocarbon and sulfur seeps in Santa Paula Creek, CA.

Autor: Aronson HS; Department of Biological Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, USA., Monteverde DR; Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, USA., Barnes BD; Department of Geosciences, Pennsylvania State University, Pennsylvania, USA., Johnson BR; Early Life Traces & Evolution-Astrobiology, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium.; Department of Earth Sciences, Oxford University, Oxford, UK., Zawaski MJ; Department of Geological Sciences, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, Colorado, USA., Speth DR; Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, USA.; Division of Biology and Biological Engineering, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, USA., Wang XT; Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, USA.; Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, USA., Wu F; Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, USA., Webb SM; SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource, Menlo Park, California, USA., Trower EJ; Department of Earth Sciences, Oxford University, Oxford, UK., Magyar JS; Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, USA., Sessions AL; Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, USA., Orphan VJ; Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, USA.; Division of Biology and Biological Engineering, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, USA., Fischer WW; Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, USA.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Geobiology [Geobiology] 2022 Sep; Vol. 20 (5), pp. 707-725. Date of Electronic Publication: 2022 Jul 27.
DOI: 10.1111/gbi.12512
Abstrakt: Biogeochemical cycling of sulfur is relatively understudied in terrestrial environments compared to marine environments. However, the comparative ease of access, observation, and sampling of terrestrial settings can expand our understanding of organisms and processes important in the modern sulfur cycle. Furthermore, these sites may allow for the discovery of useful process analogs for ancient sulfur-metabolizing microbial communities at times in Earth's past when atmospheric O 2 concentrations were lower and sulfide was more prevalent in Earth surface environments. We identified a new site at Santa Paula Creek (SPC) in Ventura County, CA-a remarkable freshwater, gravel-bedded mountain stream charged with a range of oxidized and reduced sulfur species and heavy hydrocarbons from the emergence of subsurface fluids within the underlying sulfur- and organic-rich Miocene-age Monterey Formation. SPC hosts a suite of morphologically distinct microbial biofacies that form in association with the naturally occurring hydrocarbon seeps and sulfur springs. We characterized the geology, stream geochemistry, and microbial facies and diversity of the Santa Paula Creek ecosystem. Using geochemical analyses and 16S rRNA gene sequencing, we found that SPC supports a dynamic sulfur cycle that is largely driven by sulfide-oxidizing microbial taxa, with contributions from smaller populations of sulfate-reducing and sulfur-disproportionating taxa. This preliminary characterization of SPC revealed an intriguing site in which to study geological and geochemical controls on microbial community composition and to expand our understanding of sulfur cycling in terrestrial environments.
(© 2022 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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