Influence of minor hydrocarbon seepage on sulfur cycling in marine subsurface sediments

Schnabel, Ellen; Vuillemin, Aurèle; Laczny, Cédric C.; Kunath, Benoit J.; Soares, André R.; Probst, Alexander J.; Di Primio, Rolando; Kallmeyer, Jens; the PROSPECTOMICS Consortium,

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-767-2025

Articles | Volume 22, issue 3

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-767-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-767-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 22, issue 3

Research article

|

12 Feb 2025

Research article |

| 12 Feb 2025

Influence of minor hydrocarbon seepage on sulfur cycling in marine subsurface sediments

Ellen Schnabel, Aurèle Vuillemin, Cédric C. Laczny, Benoit J. Kunath, André R. Soares, Alexander J. Probst, Rolando Di Primio, Jens Kallmeyer, and the PROSPECTOMICS Consortium

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-767-2025-supplement

Data sets

Pore water solutes, total cell counts, dissolved gases, and sulfate reduction rates of the 50 gravity cores of the PROSPECTOMICS project E. Schnabel et al. https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.974341

MetaProt: an integrated database of predicted proteins for improved annotation of metaomic datasets W. D. Orsi https://doi.org/10.5282/ubm/data.183

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Short summary

This study analysed marine sediment samples from areas with and without minimal hydrocarbon seepage from reservoirs underneath. Depth profiles of dissolved chemical components in the pore water and molecular biological data revealed differences in microbial community composition and activity. These results indicate that even minor hydrocarbon seepage affects sedimentary biogeochemical cycling in marine sediments, potentially providing a new tool for the detection of hydrocarbon reservoirs.