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The spatial distribution of archaeal lipids in a mesoscale subtropical watershed, Southeast China

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  • Special Topic: Advances in organic proxies for research in climate and environmental changes
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Abstract

Archaea play an important role in global carbon and nitrogen cycles. Archaeal lipids, such as isoprenoid glycerol diakyl glycerol tetraethers (iGDGTs), are important biomarkers tracing change in archaeal community structure and biogeochemical processes in the natural environments. In this research, the spatial distributions of archaeal lipids in the surface sediments of the Jiulong River (JR) and the Jiulong River estuary (JRE) were examined. GDGT-0 (containing zero cyclopentyl ring) and crenarchaeol were the most abundant iGDGTs in the JR and JRE. From the rivers to the estuary, the total iGDGTs, GDGT-0, crenarchaeol and archaeol concentrations showed significant spatial variation; in particular, GDGT-0 and archaeol in the river may be predominantly derived in situ from methanogens, whereas crenarchaeol in the estuary mainly derived in situ from Thaumarchaeota. We inferred that archaeal community was dominated by methanogens in the Jiulong River and by Thaumarchaeota in the Jiulong River estuary, which are consistent with change in archaeal community structure observed in other estuarine environments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Lab of Marine Geology, Tongji University, Shanghai, 200092, China

    XueYing Li, FengFeng Zheng, YuFei Chen, WenTing Guo, TingTing Zhang & ChuanLun Zhang

  2. Key Lab of Urban Pollutant Conversion, Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiamen, 361021, China

    AnYi Hu & ChangPing Yu

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  1. XueYing Li
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SPECIAL TOPIC: Advances in organic proxies for research in climate and environmental changes

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Li, X., Zheng, F., Chen, Y. et al. The spatial distribution of archaeal lipids in a mesoscale subtropical watershed, Southeast China. Sci. China Earth Sci. 59, 1317–1328 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11430-016-5303-y

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