Program of mineralization and cycling in marine systems: Organic geochemistry of particulates and sediments (CaBS): Progress report, November 15, 1987--November 14, 1988

Technical Report · Tue Nov 01 04:00:00 EST 1988

OSTI ID:6784593

Venkatesan, M I; Kaplan, I R

The biogeochemical processes and the dynamics involved in the cycling and transport of organic carbon can be elucidated only by determining distributions of specific organic compounds associated with the particles. At UCLA, the quantitative data of the various organic compounds in the sediment cores and trap particulates from various depths of water column are gathered in order to construct a dynamic model of the biogeochemical cycling and processes occurring in the water and sedimentary columns. The sources of organic carbon in southern California Bight derive from both terrestrial and marine regimes. The varied organic carbon sources can be reasonably delineated within limits by the organic geochemical approach of determining various characteristic biomarkers, as well as a variety of pollution indicators. The distributions of organic biomarker compounds are characteristic of marine algae, terrestrial vascular plants, bacteria, etc. Presence of specific biomarkers also indicate the occurrence of specific species (e.g., dinosterol specific of dinoflagellates). There are some pollution indicators which one can look for in the marine environment to trace their origin to terrestrial inputs, i.e., polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons from petroleum and combustion, coprostanol from sewage, etc. We study the distribution of many of these compounds and from a correlation of their relative abundance, an attempt is made to delineate marine vs terrestrial influx to the organic carbon in the study area. 18 refs., 1 fig., 4 tabs.

• Research Organization: California Univ., Los Angeles (USA). Inst. of Geophysics and Planetary Physics
• DOE Contract Number: FG05-85ER60338
• OSTI ID: 6784593
• Report Number(s): DOE/ER/60338-5; ON: DE89005045
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

58 GEOSCIENCES
580500* -- Oceanography-- (1980-1989)
ALCOHOLS
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CARBON CYCLE
CHEMISTRY
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DOCUMENT TYPES
FEDERAL REGION IX
GEOCHEMISTRY
HYDROCARBONS
HYDROXY COMPOUNDS
NORTH AMERICA
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
PARTICLES
PARTICULATES
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POLYCYCLIC AROMATIC HYDROCARBONS
PROGRESS REPORT
SEDIMENTS
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WATER POLLUTION