You are currently viewing the abstract.
View Full TextLog in to view the full text
AAAS login provides access to Science for AAAS members, and access to other journals in the Science family to users who have purchased individual subscriptions.
Register for free to read this article
As a service to the community, this article is available for free. Existing users log in.
More options
Download and print this article for your personal scholarly, research, and educational use.
Buy a single issue of Science for just $15 USD.
Abstract
Most of the oceanic reservoir of dissolved organic matter (DOM) is of marine origin and is resistant to microbial oxidation, but little is known about the mechanisms of its formation. In a laboratory study, natural assemblages of marine bacteria rapidly (in <48 hours) utilized labile compounds (glucose, glutamate) and produced refractory DOM that persisted for more than a year. Only 10 to 15% of the bacterially derived DOM was identified as hydrolyzable amino acids and sugars, a feature consistent with marine DOM. These results suggest that microbial processes alter the molecular structure of DOM, making it resistant to further degradation and thereby preserving fixed carbon in the ocean.
↵* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: hogawa{at}ori.u-tokyo.ac.jp