Evidence of dark oxygen production at the abyssal seafloor

作者：Andrew K. Sweetman, Alycia J. Smith, Daniëlle de Jonge, Tobias Hahn, Peter Schroedl, Michael Silverstein, Claire Andrade, R. Lawrence Edwards, Alastair Lough, Clare Woulds, William B. Homoky, Andrea Koschinsky, Sebastian Fuchs, Thomas Kühn, Franz M. Geiger, Jeffrey Marlow · 发表于：Nature Geoscience · 年份：2024 · DOI：10.1038/s41561-024-01480-8 · 被引用次数：80 · 研究领域：Marine Biology and Ecology Research、Marine and coastal ecosystems、Coral and Marine Ecosystems Studies

Deep-seafloor organisms consume oxygen, which can be measured by in situ benthic chamber experiments. Here we report such experiments at the polymetallic nodule-covered abyssal seafloor in the Pacific Ocean in which oxygen increased over two days to more than three times the background concentration, which from ex situ incubations we attribute to the polymetallic nodules. Given high voltage potentials (up to 0.95 V) on nodule surfaces, we hypothesize that seawater electrolysis may contribute to this dark oxygen production.