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Bacterial Sulfate Reduction in the Red Sea Hot Brines

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Hot Brines and Recent Heavy Metal Deposits in the Red Sea

Abstract

Fresh brine samples and mud samples from cores were taken under sterile conditions. Enrichment media for sulfate-reducing and nitrate-reducing bacteria were inoculated with these samples and incubated at room temperature and the respective brine temperature. No positive development was found in cultures inoculated from brines or core muds from the brine area. Only one of five cores from outside the brine area contained sulfate-reducing bacteria, of which two strains were isolated. Water samples from the brine/seawater transition zone in the Atlantis II Deep also resulted in positive enrichments, of which three strains of sulfate-reducing bacteria were isolated. No nitrate-reducing bacteria could be enriched from any of the samples. The isolated Desulfovibrio strains were characterized. Their temperature optima were 35°–40°C. An experiment to train ten different strains of sulfate-reducing bacteria isolated from various marine environments to grow at elevated temperatures and salinities showed that only the sulfate-reducing bacteria from the Atlantis II Deep brine/seawater transition zone grew well at 10 per cent NaCl/44°C and 1/2 concentrated brine/35°C. The probable reasons responsible for the absence of bacterial sulfate reduction in the hot brines themselves and in the brine deep sediments are discussed.

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Contribution No. 2189.

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  1. Hans G. Trüper

    Present address: Institut für Mikrobiologie, Universität Göttingen, Germany

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Massachusetts, USA

    Hans G. Trüper

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  1. Hans G. Trüper
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Massachusetts, USA

    Egon T. Degens

  2. Department of Geology and Geophysics, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Massachusetts, USA

    David A. Ross

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Trüper, H.G. (1969). Bacterial Sulfate Reduction in the Red Sea Hot Brines. In: Degens, E.T., Ross, D.A. (eds) Hot Brines and Recent Heavy Metal Deposits in the Red Sea. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-28603-6_26

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-28603-6_26

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-662-27120-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-662-28603-6

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