Enigmatic methane: Study solves a biogeochemical riddle from the ocean floor
Sunday, January 26, 2014 - 13:00
in Earth & Climate
Marine researchers from Bremen, along with a U.S. colleague, discovered the potential reasons for an unsolved mystery from beneath the seafloor - the study appeared online yesterday in Nature Geoscience. Their findings provide an explanation as to why methane in zones of turnover in the seafloor displays unusual isotopic signatures that have long puzzled researchers. The authors attribute the enigma to the process of methane oxidation by microorganisms, and suggest that this phenomenon may apply to other low-energy biogeochemical reactions that prevail in the marine realm.