Different hydrogen isotope fractionations during lipid formation in higher plants: Implications for paleohydrology reconstruction at a global scale

Leaf wax δDn-alkane values have shown to differ significantly among plant life forms (e.g., among grasses, shrubs and trees) in higher plants. However, the underlying causes for the differences in leaf wax δDn-alkane values among different plant life forms remain poorly understood. In this study, we observed that leaf wax δDn-alkane values between major high plant lineages (eudicots versus monocots) differed significantly under the same environmental conditions. Such a difference primarily inherited from different hydrogen biosynthetic fractionations (εwax-lw). Based upon a reanalysis of the available leaf wax δDn-alkane dataset from modern plants in the Northern Hemisphere, we discovered that the apparent hydrogen fractionation factor (εwax-p) between leaf wax δDn-alkane values of major angiosperm lineages and precipitation δD values exhibited distinguishable distribution patterns at a global scale, with an average of −140‰ for monocotyledonous species, −107‰ for dicotyledonous species. Additionally, variations of leaf wax δDn-alkane values and the εwax-p values in gymnosperms are similar to those of dicotyledonous species. Therefore, the data let us believe that biological factors inherited from plant taxonomies have a significant effect on controlling leaf wax δDn-alkane values in higher plants.

• Publication year

  2016

• Venue

  Scientific Reports

• Publication date

  2016-01-25

• Fields of study

  Biology, Medicine, Environmental Science

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1038/srep19711PMID 26806719PMCID 4726312
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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