Dissolved Organic Matter 
(By Mohammad Atiqur Rahman)

Dissolved organic matter(DOM) is mainly the waste products coming from the different chemical industries and contaminate the water. Those matters consist of some soluble chemicals which derived from the partial decomposition of organic compounds. It can be different types of soluble particles which released by bacteria, algae, plants and other living organisms as well as organic matter, plants residues. The fraction that will pass through a filter of a nominal pore size (Normally between 0.1µm to 1.0µm), usually those are the dissolved organic matter. The dissolved organic matter is responsible for 90% of the organic carbon in oceans, which is the largest active carbon pools of the earth. In the global carbon cycle, dissolved organic matter plays a vital role. Even minor change can possibly impact on many of the earth’s biogeochemical systems. For instance, the net mineralization of just 1% of the marine dissolved organic matter pool would generate more atmospheric carbon-di-oxide than annually produced by fossil fuel combustion.

The dissolved organic matter also plays an important role in metal chelation, influencing metal toxicity and bioavailability.  There is a rising recognition that the diverse elements of the dissolved organic matter pool provide a lot of advantageous information both their own and their parent's water’s source and history. Some modern studies have proved that the composition and concentration of lignin (Complex organic polymers) are within the dissolved organic matter pool vary with the source and diagenesis and that the radiocarbon clocks related with different compounds in the dissolved organic matter pool can be used to conjecture information about their stage and activity.

The DOM creates a lot of environmental problems. Those are global warming, greenhouse effect, destruction of biodiversity, deforestation, overpopulation, air and water pollution, soil erosion, destruction of natural habitats, other climate change issues, littering, attack of marine life, destruction of natural resources, species extinction, oil spills, acid deposition, nuclear issues, soil contamination volcanic eruption, environmental disasters, heavy metals, burning of fossil fuels, sea level rise. So, for decreasing the adverse effects of DOM, we should improve the understanding and characterization of DOM chemistry and composition. Technologies are developing day by day. Scientists hope, in the coming years will undoubtedly see major advances in the field of DOM characterization, yielding new and exciting insight into the composition and functioning of the marine DOM pool.

References:

Treatise on Geochemistry, Chapter: Dissolved Organic Matter in Aquatic Systems, Publisher: Elsevier, Editors: H. D. Holland, K. K. Turekian

Oh, S., Shin, W.S. & Kim, H.T. Environ Sci Pollut Res (2016) 23: 22882. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-016-7503-6

https://eos.org/features/dissolved-organic-matter-in-the-ocean-carbon-cycle

Effects of ocean acidification on the marine dissolved organic matter are not detectable over the succession of phytoplankton blooms, Maren Zark1,*, Ulf Riebesell2 and Thorsten Dittmar1, Science Advances  02 Oct 2015: Vol. 1, no. 9, e1500531 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.1500531