Articles | Volume 22, issue 6
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-1673-2025
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-1673-2025
Research article
 | 
31 Mar 2025
Research article |  | 31 Mar 2025

Stable iron isotope signals indicate a “pseudo-abiotic” process driving deep iron release in methanic sediments

Susann Henkel, Bo Liu, Michael Staubwasser, Simone A. Kasemann, Anette Meixner, David A. Aromokeye, Michael W. Friedrich, and Sabine Kasten

Related authors

Depositional controls and budget of organic carbon burial in fine-grained sediments of the North Sea – the Helgoland Mud Area as a test field
Daniel Müller, Bo Liu, Walter Geibert, Moritz Holtappels, Lasse Sander, Elda Miramontes, Heidi Taubner, Susann Henkel, Kai-Uwe Hinrichs, Denise Bethke, Ingrid Dohrmann, and Sabine Kasten
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-1632,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-1632, 2024
Short summary

Related subject area

Biogeochemistry: Stable Isotopes & Other Tracers
How long does carbon stay in a near-pristine central Amazon forest? An empirical estimate with radiocarbon
Ingrid Chanca, Ingeborg Levin, Susan Trumbore, Kita Macario, Jost Lavric, Carlos Alberto Quesada, Alessandro Carioca de Araújo, Cléo Quaresma Dias Júnior, Hella van Asperen, Samuel Hammer, and Carlos A. Sierra
Biogeosciences, 22, 455–472, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-455-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-455-2025, 2025
Short summary
No increase is detected and modeled for the seasonal cycle amplitude of δ13C of atmospheric carbon dioxide
Fortunat Joos, Sebastian Lienert, and Sönke Zaehle
Biogeosciences, 22, 19–39, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-19-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-19-2025, 2025
Short summary
Sea ice and mixed layer depth influence on nitrate depletion and associated isotopic effects in the Drake Passage – Weddell Sea region, Southern Ocean
Aymeric Pierre Marie Servettaz, Yuta Isaji, Chisato Yoshikawa, Yanghee Jang, Boo-Keun Khim, Yeongjun Ryu, Daniel M. Sigman, Nanako O. Ogawa, Francisco J. Jiménez-Espejo, and Naohiko Ohkouchi
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3687,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3687, 2024
Short summary
Fungi present distinguishable isotopic signals when grown on glycolytic versus tricarboxylic acid cycle intermediates
Stanislav Jabinski, Vítězslav Kučera, Marek Kopáček, Jan Jansa, and Travis B. Meador
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3153,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3153, 2024
Short summary
Bias in calculating gross nitrification rates in forested catchments using the triple oxygen isotopic composition (Δ17O) of stream nitrate
Weitian Ding, Urumu Tsunogai, and Fumiko Nakagawa
Biogeosciences, 21, 4717–4722, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-21-4717-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-21-4717-2024, 2024
Short summary

Cited articles

Arndt, S., Jørgensen, B. B., LaRowe, D. E., Middelburg, J. J., Pancost, R. D., and Regnier, P.: Quantifying the degradation of organic matter in marine sediments: A review and synthesis, Earth Sci. Rev., 123, 53–86, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.earscirev.2013.02.008, 2013. 
Aromokeye, D. A., Kulkarni, A., Elvert, M., Wegener, G., Henkel, S., Coffinet, S., Eickhorst, T., Oni, O. E., Richter-Heitmann, T., Schnakenberg, A., Taubner, H., Wunder, L., Yin, X., Zhu, Q., Hinrichs, K.-U., Kasten, S., and Friedrich, M. W.: Rates and microbial players of iron-driven anaerobic oxidation of methane in methanic marine sediments, Front. Microbiol., 10, 3041, https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2019.03041, 2020. 
Aromokeye, D. A., Oni, O. E., Tebben, J., Yin, X., Richter-Heitmann, T., Wendt, J., Nimzyk, R., Littmann, S., Tienken, D., Kulkarni, A. C., Henkel, S., Hinrichs, K.-U., Elvert, M., Harder, T., Kasten, S., and Friedrich M. W.: Crystalline iron oxides stimulate methanogenic benzoate degradation in marine sediment-derived enrichment cultures, ISME J., 15, 965–980, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41396-020-00824-7, 2021. 
Download
Short summary
We intend to unravel iron (Fe) reduction pathways in high-deposition methanic sediments because pools of Fe minerals could stimulate methane oxidation and also generation. Our data from the North Sea show that Fe release takes place mechanistically differently to Fe reduction in shallow sediments, which typically fractionates Fe isotopes. We conclude that fermentation of organic matter involving interspecies electron transfer, partly through conductive Fe oxides, could play an important role.
Share
Altmetrics
Final-revised paper
Preprint