Dataset: Porewater and hydrocarbon geochemistry constraining carbon monoxide and hydrogen cycling in subsurface sediments from R/V JOIDES Resolution IODP-385 drilling expedition in the Guaymas Basin between September and November, 2019

Study Results

Thermodynamic calculations and C1/C2+ ratios indicated that methane in the relatively cooler, shallower layers, was predominantly of biogenic origin. Radiotracer experiments provided direct evidence for the coexistence of multiple methanogenic pathways, hydrogenotrophic, acetoclastic, and methylotrophic, across the sediment column. Methanogenic activity from multiple methanogenic pathways occurred over a wide temperature range (3°C to 80°C), highlighting the unexpectedly high metabolic versatility of methanogens in deep, thermally heated sediments. High methanogenesis rates were detected in near-surface sediments driven predominantly by methylotrophic methanogenesis, followed by hydrogenotrophic pathways. However, these rates declined sharply with depth, particularly within the 40–60°C interval, indicating a transition from mesophilic to thermophilic microbial communities, due to rising temperatures, reductions in gene expression, and decreasing microbial cell densities. Methylotrophic methanogenesis remained detectable down to 320 meters below the seafloor and was the dominant methane-producing pathway at temperatures up to 60°C. In sediments increasingly influenced by sill intrusions, hydrogenotrophic and acetoclastic methanogenesis became the predominant modes of methane production. 

Methanogenic activity rates from multiple substrates at 80°C were comparable to rates in near-surface sediments. This deep, hot activity is attributed to the presence of active microbial biomass and the enhanced reactivity and bioavailability of organic matter in deep, hydrothermally-heated sediments, which provided abundant substrates for methanogenesis. These findings expand the current understanding of methanogenesis in the deep biosphere and reveal the discovery of the contemporaneous activity of multiple methanogenic pathways in deep, hydrothermally-influenced sediments.

See related datasets for all data referenced in these findings.