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Diverse copper-containing membrane-bound monooxygenase-encoding sequences (Cu-MMOs) have recently been described from the marine environment, suggesting widespread potential for oxidation of reduced substrates. Here, we used the well-defined oxygen and methane gradients associated with the Costa Rican oxygen minimum zone (OMZ) to gain insight into the physico-chemical parameters influencing the distribution and abundance of Cu-MMO-encoding marine microorganisms. Two Methylococcales-related Cu-MMO-encoding lineages, termed groups OPU1 and OPU3, demonstrated differences in their relative abundance, with both pmoA and candidate 16S rRNA genes correlating significantly with reduced environmental oxygen concentrations and depth. In contrast, a newly identified Cu-MMO-encoding lineage, Group C, was primarily associated with the oxygenated euphotic zone. An updated phylogenetic analysis including these sequences, a marine pxmABC gene cluster, ethylene-utilizing Cu-MMO-encoding lineages and previously reported planktonic Cu-MMOs (Groups W, X, Z and O) demonstrates the breadth of diversity of Cu-MMO-encoding marine microorganisms. Groups C and X affiliated phylogenetically with ethane- and ethylene-oxidizing Cu-MMOs, Groups W and O affiliated phylogenetically with the recently described Cu-MMO ‘pXMO’, and Group Z clustered with Cu-MMOs recovered from soils. Collectively, these data demonstrate widespread genetic potential in ocean waters for the oxidation of small, reduced molecules and advance our understanding of the microorganisms involved in methane cycling in the OMZ environment.

Deposits within the floor of the Norwegian Basin were sampled to characterize the deposition from the Storegga Slide, the largest known Holocene-aged continental margin slope failure complex. A 29 to 67 cm thick veneer of variable-coloured, finely layered Holocene sediment caps a homogeneous, extremely well-sorted, poorly consolidated, very fine-grained, grey-coloured sediment section that is >20 m thick on the basin floor. This homogeneous unit is interpreted to represent the uppermost deposits generated by a gravity flow associated with the last major Storegga Slide event. Sediments analogous to the inferred source material of the slide deposits were collected from upslope on the Norwegian Margin. Sediments sampled within the basin are distinguishable from the purported source sediments, suggesting that size sorting has significantly altered this material along its flow path. Moreover, the very fine grain size (3·1 ± 0·3 μm) suggests that the >20 m thick homogeneous unit which was sampled settled from suspension after the turbulent flow was over. Although the turbulent phase of the gravity flow that moved material out into the basin may have been brief (days), significantly more time (years) is required for turbid sediments to settle and dewater and for the new sea floor to be colonized with a normal benthonic fauna. Pore water sulphate concentrations within the uppermost 20 m of the event deposit are higher than those normally found in sea water. Apparently the impact of microbial sulphate reduction over the last ca 8·1 cal ka bp since the re-deposition of these sediments has not been adequate to regenerate a typical sulphate gradient of decreasing concentration with sub-bottom depth. This observation suggests low rates of microbial reactions, which may be attributed to the refractory carbon composition in these re-deposited sediments.

Erosional and depositional bedforms have been imaged at outcrop scale in the upper Redondo Fan, in the San Pedro Basin of offshore Southern California in ≥600 m water depths, using an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle developed by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute. The Autonomous Underwater Vehicle is equipped with multibeam and chirp sub-bottom sonars. Sampling and photographic images using the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute Remotely Operated Vehicle Tiburon provide groundtruth for the Autonomous Underwater Vehicle survey. The 0·3 m vertical and 1·5 m lateral bathymetric resolution and 0·1 m sub-bottom profile resolution provide unprecedented detail of bedform morphology and structure. Multiple channels within the Redondo Fan have been active at different times during the Late Holocene (0 to 3000 yr bp). The currently active channel extending from Redondo Canyon makes an abrupt 90° turn at the canyon mouth before resuming a south-easterly course along the east side of the Redondo Fan. This channel is floored by sand and characterized by small steps generally

During Ocean Drilling Program Leg 164, an unprecedented effort was made to determine the amounts of gas and gas hydrate in the sediments from Sites 994, 995, and 997. For the first time in the history of academic drilling, a pressure core sampler (PCS) worked well enough to generate an independent stratigraphy of in situ gas concentrations and compositions with depth. Here, gas concentrations and composition data produced by routine shipboard gas sampling techniques are compared with PCS data.

The cycling of methane across the soils of the tidally flooded bank margins in the tidal freshwater portion of the White Oak River estuary, North Carolina, was investigated from October 1990 to November 199 1. A comparison between these bank cdgcs and adjacent submerged stations was made. The bank stations showed large seasonal variations in methane production rates, with very little being produced in winter and large amounts (up to 1,000 mg m 2 d- I) during summer. This seasonality seems to be linked to the cycle of growth and senescence of vascular plants growing in these soils. In contrast, the submerged stations produced smaller amounts of methane year-round, with moderate increases during summer. Vascular plants are not rooted in these submerged sediments. Seasonal variations in methane production rates at the tidally flooded bank stations led to significant changes in the dissolved methane pool sizes. Although production rates and pore-water concentrations increased with seasonal increases in soil temperatures, the flux of methane to the atmosphere remained fairly low and variable. Methane flux varied with stage of the semidiurnal tidal cycle and exhibited a bimodal distribution, with fluxes greatest when the water level was nearest the soil surface. During summer months, methane production was up to 10 times greater than its flux to the atmosphere. This large difference between production and flux is attributed mainly to bacterially mediated methane oxidation at the soil surface during low-tide exposure and(or) in the root zone of plants. However, in midsummer, lateral export of dissolved methane from the bank soils, driven by tidal flushing, may account for almost 30% of this discrepancy between production and flux. Global budget estimates for methane, such as those of Cicerone and Orcmland (1988) and Tyler (1989), have shown that natural wetlands can contribute up to 50% of the methane emitted annually to the atmosphere. Thus, a major effort has been made to map the world’s wetlands (Matthews and Fung 1987; Aselman and Crutzen 1989) and to determine average fluxes from the major biomes. Grill (in press) divided the world’s wetlands into four major latitudinal zones, tropical (O-20”), temperate (2045”), boreal (45-65”), and arctic (>65”) and calculated that more than half (52.6%) of the yearly emission of methane from wetlands comes from the colder regions (boreal, 45.6%; arctic, 7.0%), with another 40.6% from the tropics and only 6.8% from temperate regions. Although temperate wetlands may contribute relatively little to the global methane flux (Crill in press), they can provide important opportunities to study factors that control methane production and flux. Given the east of access to these regions, they lend themselves to seasonal studies in which processes affecting the production of methane and its mode of transport to the atmosphere can be ascertained (c.g. Chanton and Martens 1988; Wilson