Production of biologically-refractory dissolved organic carbon by natural seawater microbial populations

Small amounts of carbon from glucose and leucine added at natural concentrations to seawater were biologically transformed to higher molecular weight (MW) dissolved materials which persisted through six months of incubation. These materials were resistant to biological utilization: only 1 to 17% of...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Brophy, Jennifer Elaine
Other Authors: Carlson, David J.
Language:en_US
Published: 2011
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1957/26128
Description
Summary:Small amounts of carbon from glucose and leucine added at natural concentrations to seawater were biologically transformed to higher molecular weight (MW) dissolved materials which persisted through six months of incubation. These materials were resistant to biological utilization: only 1 to 17% of the higher MW carbon was respired when re-incubated with seawater microbial populations. Over the same time span, 40 to 75% of the monomers were respired. In situ transformations of biologically-available carbon may be important mechanisms for the production of refractory dissolved organic carbon in the oceans. === Graduation date: 1987