Ocean and Polar Research

Korea Institute of Ocean Science & Technology (한국해양과학기술원)
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Contrasting Sources of Plant Wax n-alkanes and n-alkanoic Acids in Gulf of Mexico Sediments (ODP 625B)

멕시코만 코어 퇴적물(ODP 625B)의 식물왁스 탄화수소(n-alkanes)와 지방산(n-alkanoic acids)의 생성기원 비교 연구

  • 서연지 (한국해양과학기술원 대양자원연구센터)
  • Received : 2019.05.15
  • Accepted : 2019.06.11
  • Published : 2019.06.30
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Abstract

Long chain plant waxes (n-alkanes, n-alkanoic acids, and n-alcohols) and their carbon isotopic compositions (${\delta}^{13}C$) in geologic archives are valuable tools for paleovegetation reconstruction. However, the sensitivity of different plant wax constituents to vegetation shift is not well understood. This study explores controls on the variation in ${\delta}^{13}C$ values of long-chain n-alkanes ($C_{27}$ to $C_{33}$) and n-alkanoic acids ($C_{26}-C_{30}$) in the Gulf of Mexico core sediments (ODP 625B) near the Mississippi River delta. n-Alkanoic acids' ${\delta}^{13}C$ values were higher than those of n-alkanes by 1-2‰ on average and such a pattern is the opposite from their isotope fractionation observed in living plants: 1-2‰ smaller in n-alkanes than n-alkanoic acids. We attribute this offset to contributions from aquatic plants or microbes that produce high concentrations of $^{13}C-enriched$ long-chain n-alkanoic acids. The sensitivity of n-alkanes and n-alkanoic acids to vegetation and climate varied among chain lengths. The $n-C_{33}$ alkanes were most sensitive to $C_4$ grassland expansion among n-alkane homologues, while no specific trend was observed in n-alkanoic acids. This is due to the similarity in n-alkanoic acid concentrations between $C_3$ and $C_4$ plants by homologues and low terrestrial plant-derived n-alkanoic acid contributions to the sediments. The results of this study suggest that long chain n-alkanoic acids' ${\delta}^{13}C$ values in sediments may be influenced by contributions from different sources such as aquatic plants or microbial inputs and therefore interpretations regarding this matter should be cautiously formulated. We suggest that there is a need for further studies on characterizing long-chain n-alkanoic acids ($C_{26}-C_{34}$) in aquatic plants and microbes from various climates and environments in order to investigate their production and integration into sedimentary archives.

Keywords

HOGBB1_2019_v41n2_89_f0001.png 이미지

Fig. 2. Temporal changes in (A) δ13Calk values (‰) for C27, C29, C31, and C33, (B) δ13Cacid values (‰) for C26, C28, and C30 from Gulf of Mexico sediments (ODP 625B) during the last 150 kyr

HOGBB1_2019_v41n2_89_f0002.png 이미지

Fig. 1. (A) 30-year average mean annual precipitation (MAP), (B) mean annual temperature (MAP;prism.oregonstate.edu) in the MRB, (C) spatial distribution of biomes for current climate without human alteration (Ramankutty and Foley 2010 with modification). Yellow dot indicates location of the ODP 625B core used in this study

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