TY  - JOUR
A1  - Sarkar, Saswati
A1  - Wilkes, Heinz
A1  - Prasad, Sushma
A1  - Brauer, Achim
A1  - Riedel, Nils
A1  - Stebich, Martina
A1  - Basavaiah, Nathani
A1  - Sachse, Dirk
T1  - Spatial heterogeneity in lipid biomarker distributions in the catchment and sediments of a crater lake in central India
T2  - Organic geochemistry : the international journal for rapid publication of current research in organic geochemistry and biochemistry
N2  - The basin-scale spatial variability in lipid biomarker proxies in lacustrine sediments, which are established tools for studying continental environmental change, has rarely been examined. It is often implicitly assumed that a lake sediment core provides an average integral of catchment sources. Here we evaluated the distribution of lipid biomarkers in a modern ecosystem and compared it with the sedimentary record. We analyzed lipid biomarkers in terrestrial and aquatic organisms and in lake surface sediments from 17 locations within the saline-alkaline Lonar crater lake in central India. Terrestrial vegetation and lake surface sediments were characterized by relatively high average chain length (ACL) index values (29.6-32.8) of leaf wax n-alkanes, consistent with suggestions that plants in drier and warmer climates produce longer chain alkyl lipids than plants in cooler and humid areas. A heterogeneous spatial distribution of ACL values in lake surface sediments was found: at locations away from the shore, the values were highest (31 or more), possibly indicating different sources and/or transport of terrestrial biomarkers. In floating, benthic microbial mats and surface sediment, n-heptadecane, carotenoids, diploptene, phytol and tetrahymanol occurred in large amounts. Interestingly, these biomarkers of a unique bacterial community were found in substantially higher concentrations in nearshore sediment samples. We suggest that human influence and subsequent nutrient supply resulted in increased primary productivity, leading to an unusually high concentration of tetrahymanol in the nearshore sediments. In summary, the data showed that substantial heterogeneity existed within the lake, but leaf wax n-alkanes in a core from the center of the lake represented an integral of catchment conditions. However, lake level fluctuation may potentially affect aquatic lipid biomarker distributions in lacustrine sediments, in addition to source changes.
Y1  - 2014
UR  - https://publishup.uni-potsdam.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/38354
SN  - 0146-6380
VL  - 66
SP  - 125
EP  - 136
PB  - Elsevier
CY  - Oxford
ER  -