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Comment
. 2012 Oct 2;109(40):15976-7.
doi: 10.1073/pnas.1213639109. Epub 2012 Sep 10.

Shrinking majority of the deep biosphere

Affiliations
Comment

Shrinking majority of the deep biosphere

Bo Barker Jørgensen. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. .
No abstract available

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Conflict of interest statement

The author declares no conflict of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1.
Fig. 1.
Microbial cells numbers of marine sediments at different subseafloor depths with different sediment ages ranging from 100 y to 100 million years. Data from six sites are plotted as log10 of the cell numbers per cm3 vs. log10 of the sediment age in years. The data illustrate the general decrease in cell numbers with age of the buried organic matter that provides the energy for the deep biosphere. The central North and South Pacific have extremely low sediment burial rates and cell numbers (red symbols), thereby changing the earlier estimates of the deep biosphere to lower cell numbers. IODP, Integrated Ocean Drilling Program.

Comment on

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