Lipids of sulfate-reducing bacteria and sulfur-oxidizing bacteria found in the Dongsheng uranium deposit

Abstract

U-bearing sandstones from the Dongsheng deposit in Ordos Basin contain abundant C15–C18 fatty acids. The fatty acids may have been derived from modern and ancient organisms including organisms from the intervals of U mineralization. A certain amount of i15:0, a15:0, a17:0 fatty acids coexist with small amounts of i17:1ω7c and 10me16:0, characteristic biomarkers of Desulfovibrio and Desulfobacter sp., respectively. This indicates the existence of sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) in the sandstones. The presence of sulfur-oxidizing bacteria (SOB), such as Beggiatoa and Thioploca, is indicated by significant amounts of 16:1ω7c and 18:1ω7c fatty acids. The existence of the SRB in the deposit, as inferred from the fatty acids, is consistent with results from fossilized microorganisms and isotopic compositions of ore-stage pyrite. This suggests that the environment may have been favorable for the SRB to grow since ore formation (9.8–22 Ma). The bacteria may have degraded hydrocarbons directly, or indirectly utilized hydrocarbons degraded by oxic microbes in the deposits. This process may have produced 12 C-rich calcite and prominent baseline humps of unresolved complex mixtures (UCM), and 25-demethylated hopanes and tricyclic terpanes. The existence of sulfur-oxidizing bacteria and sulfate-reducing bacteria in the deposit may have resulted in bacterial sulfate reduction to sulfide, re-oxidization of the sulfide to sulfate and subsequent reduction of the sulfate to sulfide. This assertion is supported by ore-stage pyrite with δ 34 S values as low as −39.2‰, and the lightest sulfate (about 11‰) measured during the Phanerozoic, a difference of