Significance of carbon isotope discrimination between bulk carbon and extracted phospholipid fatty acids in selected terrestrial and marine environments
La. Cifuentes et Gg. Salata, Significance of carbon isotope discrimination between bulk carbon and extracted phospholipid fatty acids in selected terrestrial and marine environments, ORG GEOCHEM, 32(4), 2001, pp. 613-621
The development of compound-specific stable isotope analysis (CSIA) has led
to many new environmental applications. One advantage of making isotopic m
easurements of biomarkers over that of bulk carbon is that specific compone
nts of:ln ecosystem can be defined isotopically. This approach has been use
d recently with phospholipid fatty acids (PLFAs), which call be a plc,xy fo
r bacteria. We conducted a comparison of bacterial PLFAs and bulk carbon is
otope ratios in diverse terrestrial, estuarine and marine environments. The
isotopic discrimination between bulk carbon and PLFA 16:0 varied from 10.1
to -11.4 parts per thousand and was greatest in environments that were lik
ely anoxic and where methane was a potential carbon sourer. This approach w
as used to estimate that methane accounted for about 15% of the carbon used
by bacteria in a Gulf of Mexico cold seep site. (C) 2001 Published by Else
vier Science Ltd.