Data for Boye et al. "Thermodynamically controlled preservation of organic carbon in floodplains"
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- Organic matter decomposition in soils and terrestrial sediments has a prominent role in the global carbon cycle. Carbon stocks in anoxic environments, such as wetlands and the subsurface of floodplains, are large and presumed to decompose slowly. The degree of microbial respiration in anoxic environments is typically predicted based on the energetics of available terminal electron acceptors such as nitrate or sulfate; microbes couple the reduction of these compounds to the oxidation of organic carbon. However, it is also possible that the energetics of the organic carbon itself can determine whether it is decomposed. Here we examined water-soluble organic carbon by Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry to compare the chemical composition and average nominal oxidation state of carbon – a metric reflecting whether microbial oxidation is thermodynamically favourable – in anoxic (sulfidic) and oxic (non-sulfidic) floodplain sediments. We observed distinct minima in the average nominal oxidation state of water-soluble carbon in sediments exhibiting anoxic, sulfate-reducing conditions, suggesting preservation of compounds with nominal oxidation states below the threshold that makes microbial sulfate reduction thermodynamically favourable. We conclude that thermodynamic limitations constitute an important complement to other mechanisms of carbon preservation, such as enzymatic restrictions and mineral-association, within anaerobic environments.
Description
| Type of resource | software, multimedia |
|---|---|
| Date created | August 2014 - April 2016 |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Boye, Kristin |
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| Author | Noël, Vincent |
| Author | Tfaily, Malak M. |
| Author | Bone, Sharon E. |
| Author | Williams, Kenneth H. |
| Author | Bargar, John R. |
| Author | Fendorf, Scott |
Subjects
| Subject | carbon cycling |
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| Subject | climate |
| Subject | soil carbon |
| Subject | Stanford University Earth System Science |
| Genre | Dataset |
Bibliographic information
| Related Publication | Boye, K., Noël, V., Tfaily, M.M., Bone, S.E., Williams, K.H., Bargar, J.R.,Fendorf, S. (2017) Thermodynamically controlled preservation of organic carbon in floodplains. Nature Geoscience. doi:10.1038/ngeo2940. |
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| Related item |
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| Location | https://purl.stanford.edu/vv493cq1169 |
Access conditions
- Use and reproduction
- User agrees that, where applicable, content will not be used to identify or to otherwise infringe the privacy or confidentiality rights of individuals. Content distributed via the Stanford Digital Repository may be subject to additional license and use restrictions applied by the depositor.
Preferred citation
- Preferred Citation
- Boye, K., Noël, V., Tfaily, M.M., Bone, S.E., Williams, K.H., Bargar, J.R.,Fendorf, S. (2017). Data for Boye et al. "Thermodynamically controlled preservation of organic carbon in floodplains". Stanford Digital Repository. Available at: http://purl.stanford.edu/vv493cq1169
Collection
Stanford Research Data
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- Contact
- kboye@slac.stanford.edu
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