Isotope evidence for the microbially mediated formation of elemental sulfur: A case study from Lake Peten Itza, Guatemala

Elemental, or native, sulfur nodules or veins can be formed during aqueous diagenesis and have been found in a range of natural environments, including lake sediments. What governs the formation of elemental sulfur remains enigmatic, although it is widely thought to be microbially-mediated. While most of the literature suggests elemental sulfur is formed by partial re-oxidation of hydrogen sulphide, elemental sulfur can also form during incomplete bacterial sulfate reduction or during aborted sulfur disproportionation. Lake Peten Itza, in Northern Guatemala, which was cored during the International Continental Drilling program in 2006, is one of the few places where elemental sulfur nodules are forming during microbial diagenesis today. Sulfur isotopes are strongly partitioned during bacterial sulfate reduction and the magnitude of the partitioning yields insight into the microbial reactions and environmental conditions. For example, sulfate reduction that terminates at elemental sulfur likely requires the use of the intracellular trithonite pathway, which may drive larger overall sulfur isotope fractionation between the precursor sulfate and the elemental sulfur product. Sulfur isotopes combined with oxygen isotopes in the precursor sulfate may provide even more information about microbial mechanisms. We present coupled pore fluid sulfate concentrations and sulfur and oxygen isotope measurements, as well as co-existing nodule sulfur isotopes from the Lake Peten Itza sediments. The δ³⁴S of the nodules in the lake sediments ranges from +12 to -13‰, often within a single nodule. This suggests formation from an open system where sulfate is replenished by diffusion, as might be expected during pore fluid diagenesis. The δ³⁴S of the pore fluid sulfate at the depth of nodule formation is between 50 and 60‰ (versus the precursor gypsum which is 17 to 18‰) suggesting a large sulfur isotope fractionation between sulfate and elemental sulfur (38 to 73‰). Pyrite was extracted from the sediments demonstrating that there was a reduced sulphide phase also generated during microbial diagenesis. Pyrite is found at the same horizon as elemental sulfur but is isotopically much lighter than the coexisting sulfur (by 5 to 25‰). We suggest that the many isotopically distinct pools within these sediments strongly indicates an active sulfur cycle within the subsurface that more often terminates at elemental sulfur, rather than sulphide (or pyrite). Our results have implications for understanding the subsurface sulfur cycle and the use of sulfur isotopes to understand the various microbial transformations.