Enzymatic and Microbial Degradation of Organic Matter in Lake Hongfeng, Guizhou Province, China

• Published in: Acta geochimica Vol. 23; no. 1; pp. 81 - 88
• Main Author: 梁小兵 朱建明 刘丛强 魏中青 汪福顺 万国江 黄荣贵
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer Nature B.V 2004; State Key Laboratory of Environmental Geochemistry, Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guiyang 550002, China
• Subjects: Bacteria; Biodegradation; Biological research; Degradation; Deoxyribonucleic acid; Depth; DNA; Drying; Enzymes; Extracellular enzymes; Geochemistry; Glucosidase; Lake sediments; Lakes; Limnology; Microbial degradation; Microorganisms; Organic matter; Sediment; Sediments; Starch; Studies; Sulfate reduction; Sulfates; Sulphate reduction; α-Glucosidase; 有机物; 生化酶; China; Guizhou China; China, People's Rep., Guizhou Prov; China, People's Rep., Guizhou Prov., Hongfeng L; enzyme; organic matter; Lake Hongfeng; Guizhou; sediments
• ISSN: 1000-9426; 2096-0956; 1993-0364; 2365-7499
• DOI: 10.1007/bf02841140

In this work, enzymatic and microbial degradation of organic matter in Lake Hongfeng, Guizhou Province, is described in terms of variations in DNA, α-glucosidase and sulfatereduction bacteria (SRB). Organic matter is degraded by microbes and extracellular enzymes excreted by the former, to a relatively low content below the 11-cm sediment depth. The distribution of DNA indicated that microbes are very active at the 9-cm sediment depth, where organic matter is degraded by microbes intensively. The contents of α-glucosidase are highest in suspend layer (0.75μmol·min^-1·g^-1 dry sediments), showing that starch and hepatin in organic matter have been degraded intensively, α-glucosidase activity weakens with sediment depth. At the 11-cm depth where the degradation of organic matter started to slow down, α-glucosidase activity has been reduced to 0.17 μmol·min^-1·g^-1(dry sediment). Molecular biological research indicated that sulfate reduction bacteria (SRB) are distributed mainly at the upper 7-cm sediments in Lake Hongfeng. Combined with the results of research on the variations of organic matter and SO4^2-, it is indicated that SO4^2- is unlikely to become an important electron acceptor and sulfate reduction is not limited by the supply of organic matter in lake Hongfeng.