Journal
ANNUAL REVIEW OF EARTH AND PLANETARY SCIENCES, VOL 41
Volume 41, Issue -, Pages 359-384Publisher
ANNUAL REVIEWS
DOI: 10.1146/annurev-earth-050212-123947
Keywords
paleothermometry; lipid biomarkers; TEX86; Thaumarchaeota; Euryarchaeota; marine prokaryotes
Funding
- Division Of Ocean Sciences
- Directorate For Geosciences [1046098] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Archaea are abundant in marine and terrestrial aquatic environments, sediments, and soils. They inhabit at least an 85 degrees C temperature range from the polar ocean to hydrothermal springs. Many Archaea produce membrane lipids called glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers (GDGTs). Experiments on pure and enrichment cultures as well as an empirical correlation for marine sediments (the TEX86 index) together show positive relationships between temperature and the number of cyclopentane or cyclohexane rings in GDGTs. The resulting TEX86 paleotemperature proxy has been applied across a wide range of geologic history and depositional settings. The exact relationship between TEX86 and temperature, however, remains poorly understood. Environmental systems and cultures have different temperature dependencies, and the ecological niche(s) of aquatic Archaea are still a subject of active investigation. Here we review some of the remaining questions about GDGT paleotemperature proxies. Better answers to these challenging problems will help refine future paleoceanographic applications.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available