Important result for the assessment of future role in climate change

Oldenburg. The oceans contain huge amounts of carbon, originating from the degradation of living organisms and their excretions. The structure of these carbon compounds and their possible role in climate change remain widely unknown to date. Marine chemists Dr. Maren Zark and Prof. Dr. Thorsten Dittmar at the University of Oldenburg have made an important step forward with their results, recently published in the scientific journal Nature Communications: A commonly spread portion of these compounds is very likely to share the same structures, independent from its origin in lakes, rivers, the open ocean or even continental sources. More [German only]
Zark, M. und Dittmar, Th. (2018). Universal molecular structures in natural dissolved organic matter. NATURE COMMUNICATIONS. doi: 10.1038/s41467-018-05665-9 Original publication