Costal systems play a major role in global carbon sequestration and cycling, burying quantities of carbon rivaling carbon burial occurring in the seafloor, despite covering much less area. Recent field studies using solid state electrochemistry identified organic matter sulfurization as a substantial and widespread contributor to carbon burial in a range of anoxic, organic-laden mangrove environments in Rookery Bay, Florida. Given the current global need for novel solutions to anthropogenic climate change, the prospect of exploiting the pathway of organic matter sulfurization as a means for large-scale carbon sequestration is a promising undertaking. To ensure the addition of organic carbon to a euxinic system functions as a net sink of carbon over time, the spatial and temporal distribution of sulfide, sulfide oxidation products, oxygen, and dissolved organic matter will be important to characterize and monitor over long time periods. Initial experiments over several days in Rookery Bay have shown that Au-amalgam electrodes can be utilized to monitor changing sulfur and oxygen conditions in dynamic, organic-rich ocean systems using an Analytical Instrument Systems WellStat underwater potentiostat. We will also present initial results of batteries of experiments testing a range of working and reference electrode materials to optimize how to best characterize the expected dynamics of localized chemical gradients and bulk chemistry associated with organic matter sulfurization.

Exploiting organic matter sulfurization via solid state electrochemistry: A potential path to carbon sequestration

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