I am interested in the fate of particulate organic matter (‘marine snow’) as it sinks through the water column of the ocean and settles onto the seafloor. The quantity and quality of organic matter that makes it all the way down to the bottom of deep-sea trenches is controlled by the degradation activity of microbes that colonize sinking ‘marine snow’ particles. The fast descent into the deep ocean exposes the hitchhiking microbes to extremely high pressure levels that inhibit microbial degradation activity and facilitate the export of labile organic matter to deep-sea trenches. I study this scenario in rotating pressure tanks in which the descent of ‘marine snow’ into the hadal realm is simulated and the microbial degradation activity is quantified through real-time oxygen measurements.
