Detection of archaeal components in marine dissolved organic matter

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25550001
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Environmental dynamic analysis
• Research Institution: Hokkaido University
• Principal Investigator: YAMASHITA Youhei 北海道大学, 地球環境科学研究科(研究院), 准教授 (50432224)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): YAMAMOTO Masanobu 北海道大学, 大学院地球環境科学研究院, 准教授 (60332475)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 生物地球化学 / 海洋炭素循環 / 溶存有機物

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Dissolved organic matter (DOM) in the ocean constitutes one of the largest reduced carbon pools in the global carbon cycle. Bio-refractory components of DOM (RDOM) are major fraction of DOM. Marine bacterial components were found in DOM and thought to be RDOM. Archaea has recently known to be widely distributed in the ocean. Thus, it can be hypothesized that archaeal components occur in the ocean as RDOM. However, there is no evidence about occurrence of archaeal components in DOM at present.
In this study, we tried to detect glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers (GDGTs) that are components of archaeal lipids in marine DOM fraction. As a result, we detect the GDGTs from surface to deep DOM at the western North Pacific and the Arctic oceans. This finding implies that archaeal components occur ubiquitously in marine DOM.

Free Research Field

生物地球化学