Degradation of diatom-derived dissolved organic matter (DOM) in surface seawater

Stored surface seawater originally collected in the North Sea was amended with dissolved organic matter (DOM) obtained from the diatom Skeletonema marinoi by exposing the diatom culture to a hydrostatic pressure level of 40 MPa for 24 h. To this end, S. marinoi had been grown to stationary phase in L1 medium plus silicate (Guillard & Hargraves 1993) at 15°C under a light/dark regime of 14/10 h. Diatom-cell-free DOM was added to aliquoted seawater samples at initial concentrations of 250 µmol C/L. The microbial degradation of the added DOM and the microbial response to DOM-amendment at 15°C and in darkness was followed for 2 weeks. The seawater was subsampled at defined time intervals to analyze a number of variables.