Not logged in
PANGAEA.
Data Publisher for Earth & Environmental Science

Weijers, Johan W H; Schefuß, Enno; Kim, Jung-Hyun; Sinninghe Damsté, Jaap S; Schouten, Stefan (2014): Fractional abundance and indices for brGDGTs and crenarchaeol in dust samples, surface water samples and surface sediment samples [dataset publication series]. PANGAEA, https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.841793, Supplement to: Weijers, JWH et al. (2014): Constraints on the sources of branched tetraether membrane lipids in distal marine sediments. Organic Geochemistry, 72, 14-22, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.orggeochem.2014.04.011

Always quote citation above when using data! You can download the citation in several formats below.

RIS CitationBibTeX CitationShow MapGoogle Earth

Abstract:
Branched glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers (brGDGTs) are membrane lipids produced by soil bacteria and occur in near coastal marine sediments as a result of soil organic matter input. Their abundance relative to marine-derived crenarchaeol, quantified in the BIT index, generally decreases offshore. However, in distal marine sediments, low relative amounts of brGDGTs can often still be observed. Sedimentary in situ production as well as dust input have been suggested as potential, though as yet not well constrained, sources. In this study brGDGT distributions in dust were examined and compared with those in distal marine sediments. Dust was sampled along the equatorial West African coast and brGDGTs were detected in most of the samples, albeit in low abundance. Their degree of methylation and cyclisation, expressed in the MBT' (methylation index of branched tetraethers) and DC (degree of cyclisation) indices, respectively, were comparable with those for African soils, their presumed source. Comparison of DC index values for brGDGTS in global soils, Congo deep-sea river fan sediments and dust with those of distal marine sediments clearly showed, however, that distal marine sediments had significantly higher values. This distinctive distribution is suggestive of sedimentary in situ production as a source of brGDGTs in marine sediments, rather than dust input. The presence of in situ produced brGDGTs in marine sediments means that caution should be exercised when applying the MBT'-CBT palaeothermometer to sediments with low BIT index values, i.e. < 0.1, based on our dataset.
Project(s):
Center for Marine Environmental Sciences (MARUM)
Coverage:
Median Latitude: -4.393459 * Median Longitude: 9.863666 * South-bound Latitude: -75.000000 * West-bound Longitude: -78.070000 * North-bound Latitude: 79.059500 * East-bound Longitude: 141.550000
Date/Time Start: 1989-10-19T00:55:00 * Date/Time End: 2005-08-18T06:02:00
License:
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC-BY-3.0)
Size:
4 datasets

Download Data

Download ZIP file containing all datasets as tab-delimited text — use the following character encoding:

Datasets listed in this publication series

  1. Weijers, JWH; Schefuß, E; Kim, J-H et al. (2014): (Table 1) Fractional abundance and indices for brGDGTs and crenarchaeol present in dust sampled along the west coast of equatorial Africa. https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.841673
  2. Weijers, JWH; Schefuß, E; Kim, J-H et al. (2014): (Table 2) Fractional abundance and indices for brGDGTs and crenarchaeol in SPM from surface water of the Atlantic Ocean along the west coast of equatorial Africa. https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.841688
  3. Weijers, JWH; Schefuß, E; Kim, J-H et al. (2014): (Table 3) Fractional abundance and indices of brGDGTs in distal marine surface sediments. https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.841745
  4. Weijers, JWH; Schefuß, E; Kim, J-H et al. (2014): (Table 4) Fractional abundance and indices for brGDGTs and crenarchaeol in surface sediments from the Congo deep sea river fan. https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.841761