Biological processes mediated decay

These enzyme systems are widespread in nature (90, 91). Several lines of investigation have led to the conclusion that these processes may account for most biologically mediated decay of H202 observed in natural waters. 

In earlier studies it was presumed that filtration would not significantly affect formation rates because major decay processes were presumed to be chemically mediated (II, 12). Therefore little attention was given to filtered versus unfiltered formation rates. However, we have shown that microbial processes are important (16). Therefore, the formation rate of H202 in both filtered (0.2-jxm) and unfiltered (whole) lake water was determined in this study. In most of the samples the formation rate of the filtered water was higher than that of the whole (unfiltered) lake water, a result indicating that particle-mediated (biological) decay processes are important on 1-h time scales. 

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