Occurrence of highly abundant bacterial hopanoids in Dajiuhu peatland, central China

Abstract

Based on gas chromatography and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry analyses, an amazing amount of hopanoids were detected in the peat deposits in the Dajiuhu National Wetland Park in Central China. The hopanoids identified included hopanes (C₂₇–C₃₁ αβ, C₂₇–C₃₂ ββ, C₂₉ βα), hopenes (hop-22(29)-ene, 22,29,30-trinorhop-17(21)-ene, hop-17(21)-ene, hop-13(18)-ene, etc.), hopanoic acids (C₃₁–C₃₄ ββ, C₃₂–C₃₃ βα, C₃₂ αβ), hopanols (C₃₂ ββ and αβ) and hopanone (22,29,30-trinor-hop-21-one). C₃₁ αβ-22R hopane was found to be the dominant hopanoid, more abundant than individual n-alkanes derived from higher plants. These hopanoids, exclusive of some hopenes, are proposed to be primarily from bacteria. The dominant C₃₁ αβ-22R hopane in young sediments, without any thermal maturation, might be formed through microbial epimerization under acidic conditions in the peatland as suggested before, or directly from aerobic bacteria. This finding highlights the importance of microbes in the formation of peatland as well as in the reconstruction of paleoenvironments.

Keywords

hopanoids / bacteria / peat / paleoclimate / microbial activity

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Acknowledgements

The work was financially supported by the National Nature Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 40525008, 40621002) and 111 project (B08030). We acknowledge the State Key Laboratory of Geological Processes and Mineral Recourses for providing the GC and GC-MS facilities, and thank Dr. Xingfang PENG serves in the editorial department of FES for the editing work and revisal suggestion.

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2014 Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg