Biogeochemistry of iron oxidation in a circumneutral freshwater habitat

Iron(II) oxidation in natural waters at circumneutral pH, often regarded as an abiotic process, is frequently biologically mediated at iron-rich redox gradients. West Berry Creek, a small circumneutral tributary that flows through a mixed coniferous forest in Big Basin State Park, California, contains localized iron (hydr)oxide precipitates at points along its course where anoxic groundwater meets oxygenated creek water. These mixing zones establish redox gradients that may be exploited by microbes forming microbial mats that are intimately associated with iron (hydr)oxide precipitates. Water sampling revealed strong correlations between the concentrations of aqueous inorganic species, suggesting a rock-weathering source for most of these solutes. Liquid chromatography–electrospray ionization–mass spectrometry techniques detected significant concentrations of organic exudates, including low molecular mass organic acids and siderophores, indicating that active biogeochemical cycling of iron is occurring in the creek. X-ray diffraction and elemental analysis showed the precipitates to be amorphous, or possibly poorly crystalline, iron-rich minerals. Clone libraries developed from 16S rDNA sequences extracted from microbial mat communities associated with the precipitates revealed the presence of microorganisms related to the neutrophilic iron oxidizing bacteria Gallionella and Sideroxydans. Sequences from these libraries also indicated the presence of significant populations of organisms related to bacteria in the genera Aquaspirillum, Pseudomonas, Sphingomonas, and Nitrospira. These geosymbiotic systems appear to be significant not only for the biogeochemical cycling of iron in the creek, but also for the cycling of organic species, inorganic nutrients, and trace metals.     

Dolomite formation within microbial mats in the coastal sabkha of Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates)

Microbial mediation is the only demonstrated mechanism to precipitate dolomite under Earth surface conditions. A link between microbial activity and dolomite formation in the sabkha of Abu Dhabi has, until now, not been evaluated, even though this environment is cited frequently as the type analogue for many ancient evaporitic sequences. Such an evaluation is the purpose of this study, which is based on a geochemical and petrographic investigation of three sites located on the coastal sabkha of Abu Dhabi, along a transect from the intertidal to the supratidal zone. This investigation revealed a close association between microbial mats and dolomite, suggesting that microbes are involved in the mineralization process. Observations using scanning electron microscopy equipped with a cryotransfer system indicate that authigenic dolomite precipitates within the exopolymeric substances constituting the microbial mats. In current models, microbial dolomite precipitation is linked to an active microbial activity that sustains high pH and alkalinity and decreased sulphate concentrations in pore waters. Such models can be applied to the sabkha environment to explain dolomite formation within microbial mats present at the surface of the intertidal zone. By contrast, these models cannot be applied to the supratidal zone, where abundant dolomite is present within buried mats that no longer show signs of intensive microbial activity. As no abiotic mechanism is known to form dolomite at Earth surface conditions, two different hypotheses can reconcile this result. In a first scenario, all of the dolomite present in the supratidal zone formed in the past, when the mats were active at the surface. In a second scenario, dolomite formation continues within the buried and inactive mats. In order to explain dolomite formation in the absence of active microbial metabolisms, a revised microbial model is proposed in which the mineral‐template properties of exopolymeric substances play a crucial role.     

Chronometry of pedogenic and stratigraphic events from calcite produced by earthworms

Dating phases of pedogenesis, soil carbonate deposition or even the burial of whole soil profiles using ¹⁴C is a valuable goal in archaeology and pedology, but one that has been consistently hampered by the presence of old carbon skewing the measurements to produce apparent dates older than the true formation date. Calcite produced by earthworms could be a useful alternative source of datable carbon. Since earthworms both inhabit and ingest soils with an old carbon content, however, the granules could yield a ¹⁴C date older than the date of their formation. In this study, by examining granules from two sites of known-age stratigraphy, we show that the radiocarbon date derived from the granules' calcite closely reflects their true formation date, opening up the possibility of using the granules either individually or as distributions of dates to understand soil processes and date sealed archaeological layers.