Production and Cycling of Archaebacterial Phytanyl Ether Lipids in Anoxic and Hypersaline Oceanic Systems.
Acyclic isopranyl ether lipids are found in all archaebacteria (Archaea), but are not found in any other organisms. This group of organisms includes the methanogens, extreme halophiles, thermophiles, thermoacidophiles and haloalkaphiles. As a result of their uniqueness to the Archaea, isopranyl ether lipids have been used as geomolecular markers in many types of studies. We have used these compounds to investigate Recent and paleoenvironmental conditions in a variety of marine and freshwater environments including swamps, hypersaline basins, and ancient deep sea sediments. Some of the types of processes investigated include biochemical pathways, taxonomic changes in species over time, the relationship between methanogenesis and sulfate reduction, microbially-mediated carbon and oxygen cycling in strong haloclines, and reconstruction of paleoenvironments during the last glacial-interglacial period in the Gulf of Mexico. Other lipid data collected in the same water and sediment samples provide support for these interpretations.
Representative publications:
Pauly, G.G. and Van Vleet, E.S. 1986. Archaebacterial lipids in swamp sediments. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 50: 1117-1125.
Pauly, G.G. and Van Vleet, E.S. 1986. Archaebacterial ether lipids: Natural tracers of biogeochemical processes. Organic Geochemistry 10: 859-867.
Dickins, H.D. and E.S. Van Vleet. 1992. Archaebacterial activity in the Orca Basin determined by the isolation of characteristic isopranyl ether-linked lipids. Deep-Sea Research. 39:521-536.
Pease, T.K., E.S. Van Vleet and J.S. Barre. 1992. Diphytanyl glycerol ether distributions in Orca Basin sediments. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta. 56:3469-3479.
Pease, T.K., Van Vleet, E.S., J.S. Barre and H.D. Dickins. 1998. Degradation of glyceryl ethers by hydrous and flash pyrolysis. Organic Geochemistry 29: 979-988.
