Proxy Development: Bacteriohopanepolyols (BHP) and their fossil hydrocarbon counterparts as signatures of cyanobacterial productivity and nitrogen fixation in the ocean

Massachusetts Institute Of Technology, Cambridge MA

Investigators

Abstract

Under this award the PIs will develop lipid biomarker proxies that will assist the study of marine cyanobacteria in both the modern ocean and in the geological record. The PIs will test the hypothesis that cyanobacteria are a dominant source of distinctive lipids known as bacteriohopanepolyols (BHP.s) produced in the marine water column and likely to be recorded in underlying sediments. If proven, it will provide a sound basis for attributing a specific biological origin to some of the hopane hydrocarbons that occur abundantly in ancient sediments and petroleum.