PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Ogawa, Hiroshi
AU  - Amagai, Yukio
AU  - Koike, Isao
AU  - Kaiser, Karl
AU  - Benner, Ronald
TI  - Production of Refractory Dissolved Organic Matter by Bacteria
AID  - 10.1126/science.1057627
DP  - 2001 May 04
TA  - Science
PG  - 917--920
VI  - 292
IP  - 5518
4099  - http://science.sciencemag.org/content/292/5518/917.short
4100  - http://science.sciencemag.org/content/292/5518/917.full
SO  - Science2001 May 04; 292
AB  - 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.