High specific rate of sulfate reduction are encountered when sulfate-bearing bacteria metabolize at their optimal temperature and with abundant organic subtrate. In terms of passive treatment of acid mine drainage, bioreactors using sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) reach sulfate reduction rates about several mmol/L (h) (with respect to the availability and composition of carbon, reactor design, HRT, etc.) .
How representative are these archieved sulfate reduction rates compared to SRB in a sediments? Is there any possibility to measure sulfate reduction in a natural setting in order to calculate sulfate reduction rates?
It would be extremely hard to measure the reduction rate in sediments without implementing significant control over the environment. You can see if there are estimates out there, but your best bet is to try and mimic the sediment environment as closely as possible in the lab and then use that. The only real ways to measure it would be a mass balance of sulfate in vs sulfate accumulated and reduced. It might be possible to place a system over sediment and measure the H2S formation over time. This would be similar to the ways they measure soil carbon dioxide production rates. It would be highly variable and dependent on the placement of the sensor.
In the last century there was very nice and quite sensitive method established and used for envirnoments with low sulfate reduction rates: using radioactive isotope of S in sulfate.
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