Abstract:
This peat sedimentary sequence was systematically investigated with lipid molecular stratigraphy by gas chromatography-mass spectrometer (GC-MS). A variety of molecular fossils are found in this peat profile, including
n-alkanes,
n-alkanols and
n-fatty acids and so on. The
n-alkenes are from C
18 to C
28, hav-ing a maximum at C
27, with s second dominance at C
23 or C
25. In contrast to the
n-alkenes analysed, the
n-alkanes are characterized by the dominance of heavy-molecular-weight homologues (>C
22) at the same depth. According to the analysis, we found the high carbon number
n-alkenes possibly are mainly derived from higher plants, while algae and microorganisms are secondly. The ratios of low molecular number to high molecular number
n-alkenes(∑C
21-/∑C
21+) and the ratios of
n-alkenes to the corresponding carbon number
n-alkanes such as C
24:1/C
24:0 and C
23:1/C
23:0 show the regular variations. ∑C
21-/∑C
21+ has the same trend as the ratios of low molecular number to high molecular number
n-alkanes (L/H-ALK) on the whole; on the contrary, C
24:1/C
24:0 and C
23:1/C
23:0 have an opposite trend. These results indicate
n-alkenes especially these middle carbon number
n-alkenes give microbial hydrogenation under the reductive condition resulting from the climatic change such as temperature. The results show
n-alkenes proxies seem to bear significant climate information and possibly indicate temperature changes in the northeastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau during the Holocene. In addition, (C
26 +C
27 +C
28)/(C
23+C
24 +C
25)
n-alkene ratios display a defi-nite corresponding relationship with the vegetation in the region, possibly suggesting these
n-alkenes not only have a relationship with the vegetation, but also are capable of microbial degradation of different vege-tation species. Climatic information from these
n-alkens proxies is consistent with previous paleoclimate signals extracted from
n-alkanes,
n-alkanols and
n-fatty acids of the same peat profile. These indicate
n-al-kenes proxies can be an important proxy for studying the paleoclimate and global change.