To study the impact of oxygen regimes on the removal of polycylic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in oil-spill-affected coastal marine sediments, we used a thin-layer incubation method to ensure that the incubated sediment was fully oxic, anoxic, or was influenced by oxic-anoxic switches without sediment stirring. Hydrocarbon content and microbial assemblages were followed during 60 days to determ...

The fate of cyclohexane, often used as a model compound for the biodegradation of cyclic alkanes due to its abundance in crude oils, in anoxic marine sediments has been poorly investigated. In the present study, we obtained an enrichment culture of cyclohexane-degrading sulfate-reducing bacteria from hydrocarbon-contaminated intertidal marine sediments. Microscopic analyses showed an apparent d...

7.03.3 SOURCES AND DIAGENESIS OF SHOAL-WATER CARBONATE-RICH SEDIMENTS 75 7.03.3.1 Sources of Shoal-water Carbonates 75 7.03.3.1.1 General considerations 75 7.03.3.1.2 Sources of carbonate muds 76 7.03.3.1.3 Formation of carbonate sands 76 7.03.3.2 Early Marine Diagenesis of Shoal-water Carbonate-rich Sediments 77 7.03.3.2.1 Pore-water chemistry 77 7.03.3.2.2 Precipitation of early carbonate cem...

Genomic markers for anaerobic microbial processes in marine sediments-sulfate reduction, methanogenesis, and anaerobic methane oxidation-reveal the structure of sulfate-reducing, methanogenic, and methane-oxidizing microbial communities (including uncultured members); they allow inferences about the evolution of these ancient microbial pathways; and they open genomic windows into extreme microb...

The determination of inorganic arsenic, monomethylarsenic and dimethylarsenic in marine organisms and estuarine sediments is described. The arsenic species are isolated by solvent extraction, separated by ion-exchange chromatography and selectively determined by arsine generation_ Recoveries of spikes of 5 and 10 pg of arsenic taken through the whole procedure were 92-961. Typical results obtai...

Diverse nifH and nifH-like gene sequences were obtained from the deep-sea surface sediments of the methane hydrate-bearing Okhotsk Sea. Some sequences formed novel families of the NifH or NifH-like proteins, of currently unresolved bacterial or archaeal origin. Comparison with other marine environments indicates environmental specificity of some of the sequences, either unique to the methane se...

We report measurements of oceanic black carbon (BC) to determine the sources of BC to abyssal marine sediments in the northeast Pacific Ocean. We find that the average C age of BC is older (by 6200±2200 C years) than that of the concurrently deposited non-BC sedimentary organic carbon. We investigate sources of aged BC to sediments by measuring a sample of sinking particulate organic carbon (PO...

To understand the nitrogen (N) cycle in sediments with deep oxygen penetration, we measured pore-water profiles to calculate N fluxes and rates at 13 locations in Lake Superior in water depths ranging from 26 to 318 m. Sediments with high oxygen demand, such as in nearshore or high-sedimentation areas, contribute disproportionally to benthic N removal, despite covering only a small portion of t...

Heges, J.I. and van Geen, A., 1982. A comparison of lignin and stable carbon isotope composit ions in quaternary marine sediments. Mar. Chem., 11: 43--53. Organic matter in four Quaternary sediment cores from the Gulf of Mexico and one core from the Washington State coast have been analyzed for lignin and stable carbon isotope compositions. Holocene sequences of all five cores contain organic m...

Gas hydrates affect the bulk physical properties of marine sediments, in particular, elastic parameters. Shear modulus is an important parameter for estimating the distribution of hydrates in the marine sediments. However, S-wave information is difficult to recover without proper datasets. Seafloor compliance, the transfer function between pressure induced by surface gravity waves and the assoc...