Comparison of different chain n-fatty acids in modern plants on the Loess Plateau of China

Abstract

n-Fatty acids (n-FAs) are widely investigated in lake sediments, yet less attention has been given to soil sedimentary n-FAs primarily derived from terrestrial plants. In this study, we performed an analysis of n-FA distributions in modern plants on the Loess Plateau, China. It showed that n-FAs were generally dominated by n-C₁₆, and that short-chain (C₁₆–C₂₀), medium-chain (C₂₂–C₂₆) and long-chain (C₂₈–C₃₂) n-FAs accounted for 49.7%, 33.7% and 16.6%, respectively. The LTR (long-chain/total ratio), and medium-chain EOP (even/odd predominance) are likely to differentiate between dicots and monocots in modern plants. It is believed that this study will promote the paleo-application of soil sedimentary n-FAs on the Loess Plateau.

Keywords

n-fatty acids / terrestrial higher plants / Chinese Loess Plateau

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Dr. Z. Wang and Prof. W.G. Liu for assisting in field sampling. This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 41420104008) and Chinese Academy of Sciences (Nos.132B61KYSB20170005, QYZDY-SSW-DQC001 and ZDBS-LY-DQC033).

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