A study of the formation of high molecular weight compounds during the decomposition of a field diatom population

Abstract

This work has investigated the possible formation of humic and fulvic acids, particularly high molecular weight moieties, in degrading diatom debris. The diatom debris was collected, freshly sedimented, from a well characterized natural field diatom population and allowed to degrade under conditions similar to those found at the sediment-water interface of many marine, organic-rich sediments. Samples of the detritus and overlying water were taken regularly over a period of 4 months and analysed for the presence of humic compounds. In the case of the detrital material, a sequential series of extractions were used. Molecular weight fractionation of the extracted humic material was carried out using Diaflow Ultrafiltration Membranes and two different fractionation methods have been compared. It appears that the choice of method may have an important effect on the determined distribution of the humic material, particularly when humic acid concentrations are low. High molecular weight (> 300 000- > 100 000) humic and fulvic acids were found in all the detrital samples, the content increasing with the period of decomposition. No evidence of any humic material was found in extracts of the living diatoms, the conclusion being that this material had been formed in situ during the degradation of the diatom debris. Most (65–90%) of the humic material was extracted from the detritus using a mild 0·05 m NaOH extraction at room temperature. Fulvic acids comprised approximately 90% of the total 0·05 m NaOH extraction, being composed mainly of either low molecular weight compounds (40–50% < 10000) or high molecular weight compounds (38–48% > 100000). Levels of humic acids were much lower and included a wide range of molecular weight fractions. The relevance of these findings to the possible origin of humic material in certain marine sediments is discussed.