White and orange mats are ubiquitous on surface sediments associated with gas hydrates and cold seeps in the Gulf of Mexico. The goal of this study was to determine the predominant pathways for carbon cycling within an orange mat in Green Canyon (GC) block GC 234 in the Gulf of Mexico. Our approach incorporated laser-scanning confocal microscopy, lipid biomarkers, stable carbon isotopes, and 16...

The sulfur biogeochemical cycle plays a key role in regulating Earth's surface redox through diverse abiotic and biological reactions that have distinctive stable isotopic fractionations. As such, variations in the sulfur isotopic composition (δ34S) of sedimentary sulfate and sulfide phases over Earth history can be used to infer substantive changes to the Earth's surface environment, including...

Kinetic isotope effects related to the breaking of chemical bonds drive sulfur isotope fractionation during dissimilatory sulfate reduction (DSR), whereas oxygen isotope fractionation duringDSR is dominated by exchange between intercellular sulfur intermediates and water. We use a simplified biochemical model for DSR to explore how a kinetic oxygen isotope effect may be expressed. We then explo...

The discovery of sulfur mass-independent fractionation (S-MIF) in ancient sedimentary rocks [1] has created the opportunity for quantitative constraints on the composition of the early atmosphere. Laboratory experiments have shown that S-MIF occurs during SO2 photodissociation at a variety of UV wavelengths [2, 3]. The source of the S-MIF in experiments at wavelengths ~ 200 nm is self-shielding...

The fractionation of sulfur isotopes by the thermophilic chemolithoautotrophic Thermodesulfatator indicus was explored during sulfate reduction under excess and reduced hydrogen supply, and the full temperature range of growth (40–80 C). Fractionation of sulfur isotopes measured under reduced H2 conditions in a fed-batch culture revealed high fractionations (24–37&) compared to fractionations p...

Green coffee bean isotopes have been used to trace the effects of different climatic and geological characteristics associated with the Hawaii islands. Isotope ratio mass spectrometry (IRMS) and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry ((MC)-ICP-SFMS and ICP-QMS) were applied to determine the isotopic composition of carbon (δ13C), nitrogen (δ15N), sulfur (δ34S), and oxygen (δ18O), the isoto...