Reducing microzones and sulfide production in marine snow

Abstract

Even when the ambient waters were well oxygenated, patches of reduced tetrazolium salts were found in marine snow indicating that strongly reducing microzones were present in these aggregates. The sulfide was probably produced by anaerobic microbes in the reducing microzones in the marine snow. Suggests that the paradoxical production of sulfide in aerobic water columns is probably due to production within anoxic microzones within marine snow. -from Authors