A review of sterol markers for marine and terrigenous organic matter

Fatty acids have been used as qualitative markers to trace or confirm predator-prey relationships in the marine environment for more than thirty years. More recently, they have also been used to identify key processes impacting the dynamics of some of the world's major ecosystems. The fatty acid trophic marker (FATM) concept is based on the observation that marine primary producers lay down certain fatty acid patterns that may be transferred conservatively to, and hence can be recognized in, primary consumers. To identify these fatty acid patterns the literature was surveyed and a partial least squares (PLS) regression analysis of the data was performed, validating the specificity of particular microalgal FATM. Microalgal group specific FATM have been traced in various primary consumers, particularly in herbivorous calanoid copepods, which accumulate large lipid reserves, and which dominate the zooplankton biomass in high latitude ecosystems. At higher trophic levels these markers of herbivory are obscured as the degree of carnivory increases, and as the fatty acids originate from a variety of dietary sources. Such differences are highlighted in a PLS regression analysis of fatty acid and fatty alcohol compositional data (the components of wax esters accumulated by many marine organisms) of key Arctic and Antarctic herbivorous, omnivorous and carnivorous copepod species. The analysis emphasizes how calanoid copepods separate from other copepods not only by their content of microalgal group specific FATM, but also by their large content of long-chain monounsaturated fatty acids and alcohols. These monounsaturates have been used to trace and resolve food web relationships in, for example, hyperiid amphipods, euphausiids and fish, which may consume large numbers of calanoid copepods. Results like these are extremely valuable for enabling the discrimination of specific prey species utilized by higher trophic level omnivores and carnivores without the employment of invasive techniques, and thereby for identifying the sources of energetic reserves. A conceptual model of the spatial and temporal dominance of group-specific primary producers, and hence the basic fatty acid patterns available to higher trophic levels is presented. The model is based on stratification, which acts on phytoplankton group dominance through the availability of light and nutrients. It predicts the seasonal and ecosystem specific contribution of diatom and flagellate/microbial loop FATM to food webs as a function of water column stability. Future prospects for the application of FATM in resolving dynamic ecosystem processes are assessed.

Fatty acid trophic markers in the pelagic marine environment.

Microalgal biomarkers: A review of recent research developments

Variations in sea-surface temperatures over the past 500,000 years are inferred from the relative abundance behaviour of two organic compounds, C37 alkenones over the upper 8 metres of a sediment core from the eastern equatorial Atlantic. This molecular record, ascribed to contributions from prymnesiophyte algae, correlates well with the variations in the δ18 signal for the calcareous skeletons of certain planktonic foraminifera, thus providing the first demonstration of a new stratigraphical technique, which may be especially valuable where methods based on carbonate δ18 fail.

Molecular stratigraphy: a new tool for climatic assessment

Fatty acid and lipid composition of 10 species of microalgae used in mariculture

Microbial lipids of an intertidal sediment—I. Fatty acids and hydrocarbons

Fatty acids of bacterial origin in contemporary marine sediments

Sources of neutral lipids in a temperate intertidal sediment

A comparison of lipid components of the fresh and dead leaves and pneumatophores of the mangrove Avicennia marina

The fatty acid and sterol composition of two marine dinoflagellates

R.B. Johns

Papers

Microbial lipids of an intertidal sediment—I. Fatty acids and hydrocarbons

Fatty acids of bacterial origin in contemporary marine sediments

Sources of neutral lipids in a temperate intertidal sediment

A comparison of lipid components of the fresh and dead leaves and pneumatophores of the mangrove Avicennia marina

The fatty acid and sterol composition of two marine dinoflagellates