Sulfur Gas Program in the Vestfold Hills, Davis 1987

The study was conducted on a number of saline lakes in the Vestfold Hills. Taken from the scanned report: Considerable effort has, in the last ten years, been levelled at determining the biological source and role of dimethylsulfide (DMS), a compound now thought to have a great deal of importance not only in the atmospheric sulfur cycle but also the control of weather.

Investigations have largely been of three types: in vivo studies of production in the ocean, in vivo studies of production in lakes and in vitro studies of both production and role in cultures of particular micro-organisms. The 1987 Davis water biology program looked at aspects of all three as evidenced in the environments found in the area of the Vestfold Hills. The project was divided into three sections: 1) Investigation of seasonal variations in the DMS levels in the ocean offshore from Davis. 2) Investigation of the DMS levels in the highly saline lakes of the Vestfold Hills. 3) Isolation and study, with respect to their sulfur gas biogeochemistry, of bacteria and algae from the lakes.