Browse by author
Lookup NU author(s): Dr Helen Talbot, Professor Thomas Wagner
Full text for this publication is not currently held within this repository. Alternative links are provided below where available.
Recently, four bacteriohopanepolyols (BHPs), adenosylhopane, and structurally similar adenosylhopane-type 1, 2-methyl adenosylhopane, and 2-methyl adenosylhopane-type 1, have been suggested to be characteristic of soil microbial communities and therefore can serve as molecular markers for soil organic matter (OM) supply in river, lake, and marine sediments. In this study, we analyzed BHPs in peats and soils collected in the Tet watershed (southern France) and compared them with branched glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers (GDGTs), a more established molecular tracer of soil OM. Adenosylhopane-type I is identified in all of the samples from the study area except one collected near the Tet River mouth with up to three of the related compounds also frequently present, particularly in the surface samples. The concentrations of soil-specific BHPs in peat environments have been shown to increase with lower delta N-15 values, providing evidence that N-2-fixing bacteria are probably a major source of soil-specific BHPs in acidic environments. It seems likely that soil pH is a major factor controlling BHP occurrence based on statistical analysis of environmental parameters and BHP concentration data. The comparison of the soil-specific BHP concentrations with those of branched GDGTs shows no clear relationship in the Tet River system, supporting the concept that these two groups of soil-specific compounds are synthesized by different microbial organisms living in different niches in the soil profile (e.g., oxic top versus anoxic deep).
Author(s): Kim JH, Talbot HM, Zarzycka B, Bauersachs T, Wagner T
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems
Year: 2011
Volume: 12
Issue: 2
Print publication date: 19/02/2011
ISSN (print):
ISSN (electronic): 1525-2027
Publisher: American Geophysical Union
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2010GC003364
DOI: 10.1029/2010GC003364
Altmetrics provided by Altmetric
