Other
Scientific paper
Sep 1988
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1988gecoa..52.2303p&link_type=abstract
Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, vol. 52, Issue 9, pp.2303-2310
Other
133
Scientific paper
Cultures of the marine coccolithophorid, Emiliania huxleyi , were grown in the laboratory at five temperatures (8°, 10°, 15°, 20°, 25°C) and monitored by capillary gas chromatography for their long-chain, unsaturated lipid compositions. The long-chain lipids of this plant comprise a series of C 37 , C 38 and C 39 di-, tri- and, in cells grown below 15°C, tetra-unsaturated methyl and ethyl ketones and a methyl and ethyl ester of a di-unsaturated C 36 fatty acid. Systematic changes in the degree of unsaturation and in the overall carbon chain length distribution of the alkenones and in the proportion of fatty acid esters relative to alkenones are noted as a function of growth temperature. We present temperature calibrations for these changes in the lipid composition of laboratory cultures and compare these results with the compositions of this biomarker series measured in a variety of sediments accumulating beneath warm ( 25°C) and cold ( 12°C) surface waters in the tropical and temperate North Pacific Ocean, respectively. The comparisons demonstrate 1) this series of biomarkers is deposited in these oceanic sediments with minimal evidence of alteration to its original composition and 2) the strain of E. huxleyi used in this laboratory calibration is representative of the "average" marine phytoplankton supplying this novel series of biomarkers to contemporary sediments in these two environments and a wide variety of other oceanic environments. The long-chain alkenones constitute a major component (8.0 ± 2.9%) of the total organic carbon content of living cells of E. huxleyi . The high cellular abundance of these compounds appears to be relatively constant and independent of the growth temperature of the plant. These biomarkers provide a well-designed and useful geochemical tool for assessing variations not only in surface water temperatures but potentially also in the productivity of an important group of marine phytoplankton in oceans of the recent and distant past.
Muehlhausen Laurel A.
Prahl Fredrick G.
Zahnle Debra L.
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