Oxygen-minimum zone sediments in the northeastern Arabian Sea off Pakistan: a habitat for the bacterium Thioploca

Filamentous sulfur-oxidizing bacteria and geochemical parameters of sediments at the Makran accretionary wedge in the northeastern Arabian Sea off Pakistan were studied. The upper continental slope between 350 and 850 m water depth, which is in the center of the oxygen-minimum zone, is characterized by numerous sites of small-scale seeps of methane- and sulfide-charged porewater. White bacterial mats with diameters <1 m were discovered at the surface of these sites using a photo-TV sled. Seep sediments, as well as non-seep sediments, in the vicinity were characterized by the occurrence of the bacterium Thioploca in near-surface layers between 0 and 13 cm depth. Thioploca bundles were up to 20 mm in length and contained up to 20 filaments of varying diameters, between 3 and 75 µm. Up to 169 ind. cm-2 were counted. Maximum numbers occurred in the top 9 cm of sediment, which contained very low concentrations of soluble sulfide (<0.2 µM) and high amounts of elemental sulfur (up to 10 µmol cm-3). Moderate sulfate reduction activity (between 20 and 190 nmol cm-3 d-1) was detected in the top 10 cm of these sediments, resulting in a gradual downcore decrease of sulfate concentrations. CO2 fixation rates had distinct maxima at the sediment surface and declined to background values below 5 cm depth. The nutritional implications of the distinct morphology of Thioploca and of the geochemical setting are discussed and compared to other sites containing Thioploca communities.