There is great interest in the membrane lipids of archaea (glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers [GDGTs]) as tracers of archaeal biomass because of their utility as paleoproxies and because of the biogeochemical importance of archaea. While core GDGTs (formed by hydrolysis of polar head groups of intact GDGTs after cell death) are appropriate for paleostudies, they have also been used to trace archaeal populations. Also, despite the small size (0.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe ability to measure the radiocarbon content of compounds isolated from complex mixtures has begun to revolutionize our understanding of carbon transformations on earth. Because samples are often small, each new compound isolation method must be tested for background carbon contamination (C(ex)). Here, we present a new method for compound-specific radiocarbon analysis (CSRA) of higher plant-derived lignin phenols.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFlorida red tides occur as the result of blooms of the marine dinoflagellate Karenia brevis. K. brevis is known to produce several families of fused polyether ladder compounds.
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