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Demonstration, using Desulfobacter sp., of two pools of acetate with different biological availabilities in marine pore water

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Abstract

Desulfobacter sp. (Strain 3ac10), an acetate-utilizing sulphatereducing bacteria, was added to sterile marine pore water spiked with 14C-acetate, and changes in both the natural acetate pool and the added 14C-acetate were measured over time. Initially, both the added 14C-acetate and the chemically measured acetate were rapidly mineralized, but then the rate of removal decreased and a significant amount (approximately 20%) of both 14C-acetate and chemically measured acetate remained unmetabolised. In a replicate experiment, approximately 50% of the acetate was not metabolised. Kinetic analysis of the data indicated that there were two pools of acetate in the original pore water, a biologically available pool (which is rapidly metabolised) and a recalcitrant pool (which is only very slowly metabolised). Addition of 14C-acetate after the biologically available acetate had been removed resulted in rapid removal of the added acetate but no change in the recalcitrant acetate pool. The implications of this data to radiolabelled techniques of measuring in situ acetate turnover are discussed.

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Communicated by J. Mauchline, Oban

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Parkes, R.J., Taylor, J. & Jørck-Ramberg, D. Demonstration, using Desulfobacter sp., of two pools of acetate with different biological availabilities in marine pore water. Mar. Biol. 83, 271–276 (1984). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00397459

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