HR: 11:50h
AN: PP32B-07 INVITED    [Abstracts]
TI: A Qualitative and Quantitative Comparison of Sedimentary Palynomorphs, Lipid Biomarkers and Fossil DNA: Which Tool Provides the Most Detailed Paleoecological and Paleoenvironmental Information?
AU: * Boere, A C
EM: aboere@nioz.nl
AF: NIOZ Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, p.o.box 59, Den Burg, NL-1790AB, Netherlands
AU: Abbas, B
EM: abbas@nioz.nl
AF: NIOZ Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, p.o.box 59, Den Burg, NL-1790AB, Netherlands
AU: Rijpstra, W I
EM: rijpstra@nioz.nl
AF: NIOZ Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, p.o.box 59, Den Burg, NL-1790AB, Netherlands
AU: Volkman, J K
EM: John.Volkman@csiro.au
AF: Antarctic CRC and CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research, GPO Box 1538, Hobart, Tasmania, 7001, Australia
AU: Sinninghe Damsté, J S
EM: damste@nioz.nl
AF: NIOZ Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, p.o.box 59, Den Burg, NL-1790AB, Netherlands
AU: Coolen, M J
EM: m.coolen@whoi.edu
AF: NIOZ Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, p.o.box 59, Den Burg, NL-1790AB, Netherlands
AU: Coolen, M J
EM: m.coolen@whoi.edu
AF: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), 360 Woods Hole Rd. MS#4, Woods Hole, MA 0254, United States
AB: In recent years, it was shown that Holocene planktonic taxa could be identified at the species-level based on their preserved fossil genetic signatures (fossil DNA) in either cold and/or sulfidic lacustrine and marine settings. Many of those species are not known to leave morphologically recognizable remains and thus most likely would have escaped microscopic determination and enumeration. In addition, fossil DNA analysis also revealed past planktonic taxa for which no specific lipid biomarkers are known. However, the best, and yet unexplored, approach to validate fossil DNA as paleoenvironmental tool would be based on a direct qualitative and quantitative comparison of each of the above described proxies. In an up to 2700-year-old record of undisturbed sulfidic sediments from the Small Meromictic Basin in Ellis Fjord, Antarctica, we compared the quantitative and qualitative distribution of fossil ribosomal DNA of phototrophic algae like diatoms, dinoflagellates and past chemocline bacteria (green sulfur bacteria) with the distribution of their fossil lipid biomarkers: highly branched isoprenoids, dinosterol and carotenoids. For dinoflagellates, we performed a comparative microscopic (palynological) analysis of fossil dinocysts whereas comparative diatom microfossil data was available from the literature. We will discuss important new insights about the cell-specific fate of fossil DNA and the additional paleoenvironmental information which was revealed from the fossil DNA analysis.
DE: 0448 Geomicrobiology
DE: 0459 Macro- and micropaleontology (3030, 4944)
DE: 0465 Microbiology: ecology, physiology and genomics (4840)
DE: 4950 Paleoecology
SC: Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology [PP]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting