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Nonthermal Factors Affecting Production and Unsaturation of Alkenones in Emiliania huxleyi and Gephyrocapsa oceanica

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Abstract

Alkenones are long-chain (C37, C38, C39) unsaturated methyl and ethyl ketones, and they occur widely in marine and lacustrine sediments. The recognized major source of the observe alkenones are the coccolithophorids, Emiliania huxleyi and the closely related Gephyrocapsa oceanica. Alkenones tend to retain the degree of unsaturation fixed at the time of synthesis at the sea surface and some of them were preserved at the sediment surface. UK’ 37 was used as an index of the unsaturation degree of C37 alkenones and has been widely used as a paleoceanographic tool (Volkman et al., 1980). UK’ 37 was calculated based on the previous report as: U K’ 37 = C37:2/(C37:2 + C37:3) (Brassell et al., 1986; Prahl and Wakeham, 1987).

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References

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© 2003 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

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Sorrosa, J.M., Yamamoto, M., Shiraiwa, Y. (2003). Nonthermal Factors Affecting Production and Unsaturation of Alkenones in Emiliania huxleyi and Gephyrocapsa oceanica . In: Murata, N., Yamada, M., Nishida, I., Okuyama, H., Sekiya, J., Hajime, W. (eds) Advanced Research on Plant Lipids. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-0159-4_30

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-0159-4_30

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-90-481-6210-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-017-0159-4

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