HR: 09:00h
AN: PP51G-05    [Abstracts]
TI: Preservation of Plant Biomolecules and the Relevance to the Interpretation of Paleoenvironmental Signals: Tertiary {\it Metasequoia } Fossils as Examples
AU: Yang, H
EM: hyang@bryant.edu
AF: Bryant University, 1150 Douglas Pike, Smithfield, ri 02917 United States
AU: * Leng, Q
AF: Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, 210008 China
AB: The degradation and preservation of biomolecules in plant tissues not only affects the inference on paleoecology of ancient plants but also bears significance in the interpretation of paleoenvironmental signals. Using a combined SEM and geochemical approach, we are able to show the source, liability, and preservation of structural biopolymers from morphologically well-preserved {\it Metasequoia } tissues from three Tertiary deposits. We detected a continuum of biomolecular preservation in this evolutionarily-conserved conifer. Pyrolysis-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (Py-GC-MS) was applied to solvent-extracted residues from both fossil leaf and wood remains in comparison with tissues from their living counterparts. The late Paleocene-early Eocene leaves from Ellesmere Island, Canadian Arctic Archipelago, exhibit the best quality of biochemical preservation and show pyrolysis products derived from labile biomolecules characterized by large amounts of polysaccharides. These labile biomolecules are the oldest record of these kinds so far characterized by the pyrolysis technology. The middle Eocene leaf tissues from Axel Heiberg Island, Canadian Arctic Archipelago, yielded slightly lesser amounts of polysaccharide moieties, but the lignin products are similar to those identified from the Ellesmere Island fossils. Compared with these Arctic materials, the {\it Metasequoia } leaves from Miocene Clarkia, Idaho, USA, show the lowest quality of molecular preservation, characterized by a dramatic reduction of polysaccharides. This continuum of relative quality of biomolecular preservation is further confirmed by SEM observations of transverse sections of these fossil leaves. The investigation revealed tissue-specific degradation, and our data support the in-situ polymerization hypothesis for the origin of long-chain homologous pairs of aliphatic n-alk-1-enes/n-alkanes as leaf alteration products. The preferential degradation and selective removal of polysaccharides may be significant in estimating plant paleo-productivity whereas the addition of aliphatic components to the leaf wax lipid pool may potentially contribute to the accuracy of compound specific isotope analysis using these lipid markers.
DE: 1615 Biogeochemical processes (4805)
DE: 0315 Biosphere/atmosphere interactions
DE: 0330 Geochemical cycles
DE: 0400 Biogeosciences
SC: Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology [PP]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting