Early diagenesis of mangrove leaves in a tropical estuary: Molecular-level analyses of neutral sugars and lignin-derived phenols

Details Early diagenesis of mangrove leaves in a tropical estuary: Molecular-level analyses of neutral sugars and lignin-derived phenols Early diagenesis of mangrove leaves in a tropical estuary: Molecular-level analyses of neutral sugars and lignin-derived phenols

Jul 1990

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1990gecoa..54.1991b&link_type=abstract

Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, vol. 54, Issue 7, pp.1991-2001

Computer Science

8

Scientific paper

Leaves of the red mangrove, Rhizophora mangle , were collected from trees and submerged sediments in a tropical mangrove swamp in the Bahamas. Weight-to-area measurements indicated that the most highly degraded black-colored leaves had undergone a 36% loss in ash-free dry weight (AFDW). Green leaves were characterized by an abundance of cyclitols (8.5% AFDW), glucose-rich aldose mixtures (20% AFDW) and relatively low yields of lignin-derived phenols (2% AFDW). Cyclitols were rapidly lost from senescing and submerged decomposing leaves, whereas the overall yields of aldoses and lignin-derived phenols remained fairly constant throughout the various stages of leaf decay. Decomposition patterns were therefore unusual in that lignin was lost at about the same rate as polysaccharides. Variable loss rates were observed within the individual aldoses, indicating the following stability series (most to least stable) for submerged leaves: hemicelluloses > cellulose > pectins and gums. Compositional patterns of lignin-derived phenols remained fairly constant throughout decomposition and were characterized by unusually high acid-to-aldehyde ratios (0.4) in all leaf samples. A laboratory leaching experiment was conducted with senescent leaf material to estimate the contribution of leaching to the observed compositional patterns. Assuming the amounts and patterns of materials leached in the laboratory experiment were similar to those for field degraded leaves, we estimated that leaching could account for 58% of the mass loss, 97% of the cyclitol loss, 46% of the aldose polysaccharide loss and 74% of the lignin loss. Microbial degradation appeared to be responsible for about half of the overall mass and polysaccharide loss. Vanillyl phenols were leached in preference to syringyl phenols and the vanillic acid-to-vanillin ratio for the leachate was very high (0.7). These results indicate that high acid-to-aldehyde ratios are not necessarily indicative of microbial oxidation and should be interpreted with caution. During early diagenesis of leaves, leaching produces relatively large quantities of dissolved organic matter (DOM) and the lignin component, in particular, may provide a convenient tracer for studying the distribution and fate of mangrove-derived DOM in estuarine and coastal waters.

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