Organic Phosphorus in the Deep Subseafloor Environment

Abstract:

Phosphorus (P) is a macronutrient involved both in functional and structural components of all living cells. This makes it an essential nutrient for life, including microbial life in the deep subseafloor habitat. P availability in this environment is limited since organic matter is scarce and P is thought to be mainly present in refractory mineral phases. However, recent estimates suggest that the deep biosphere may contain up to 1% of Earth’s total biomass, which implies that microorganisms may possess mechanisms to harvest recalcitrant phosphorus compounds in this environment. In addition, the role of the organic P pool in this setting is poorly understood and could be of great importance should it represent an important P pool fueling the deep biosphere. This study aims to identify and quantify organic P compounds in open ocean sediments using our newly developed sequential extraction procedure for ³¹P nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (³¹P NMR). This method amplifies the signal of organic P in spectra by increasing its concentration and quantitatively removing the majority of inorganic P. Briefly, P bound to iron oxyhydroxides is removed from sediment samples during a reductive step; then, P in authigenic and biogenic apatite is solubilized over the course of an extraction in an acidic buffer. These two steps remove the majority of inorganic P from the sample. Lastly, the residue is extracted in 0.25M NaOH+ 0.05M Na₂EDTA and the supernatant is frozen and lyophilized prior to ³¹P NMR analysis. This method will be applied to sediment samples from North Pond (IODP expedition 336), an isolated sediment pond on the western flank of the Mid-Atlantic ridge. This work will provide valuable insight into the diagenetic processes affecting organic P in open ocean sediments and into possible nutrient sources to the deep biosphere.