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- Hinrichs Lab - EUROPROX III-6
Hinrichs Lab - EUROPROX III-6
EUROPROX III-6: Molecular Biomarkers in marine sediment as proxies: GDGTs and BHPs and their fossil analogues
| Duration: | 2008 - 2010 |
| Funding: | Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) Graduate College "Proxies in Earth History" |
| Principal Investigator(s): | Kai-Uwe Hinrichs |
| Involved scientists in the Hinrichs Lab: | Xiaolei Liu |
| Partners: | Prof. Dr. Jörn Peckmann (MARUM/Universität Bremen), Prof. Dr. Roger Summons (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA) |
Abstract
The PhD project is embedded in EUROPROX project #6 that aims to develop, test, validate, and apply molecular proxies for the activity of prokaryotic algae and related paleo sea surface thermometers. Molecular biomarkers are an increasingly popular set of tools for research of both modern and ancient environments. Many organic proxies had been proposed and widely applied during the past few decades, and some of them are often considered to be more robust than their related inorganic proxies. Usually, however, with the knowledge of correlative biology and geochemistry expanding, new problems emerge that affect the initial hypothesis on which those proxies had been established. Using a comprehensive collection of world-wide marine sediment samples from ODP, IODP, and national expeditions, we will analyze the organic molecular composition in various depositional environments and profile of selected biomarkers through some extreme geological periods. In this project some targeted organic proxies will be tested, and meanwhile a general survey of special biomarker distribution might help to develop new promising proxy for future subjects.
This project will be integrated in the framework of observations to be acquired by other EUROPROX partners and thus create ideal conditions for stimulating interdisciplinary interactions with other graduate students. A series of analytical techniques, such as, HPLC-MS, GC-MS and GC-isotope ratio-MS, will be applied for both fossil lipids and intact polar lipids (IPLs, which represent the living organism signal) analysis. Therefore, we will not only focus on the exploration of biomarker proxies with the fossil molecule preserved but also the signal of living microbial communities in deep sediment and its contribution to the fossil biomarker pool.
The project is following up EUROPROX Project II-6.
The PhD project is embedded in EUROPROX project #6 that aims to develop, test, validate, and apply molecular proxies for the activity of prokaryotic algae and related paleo sea surface thermometers. Molecular biomarkers are an increasingly popular set of tools for research of both modern and ancient environments. Many organic proxies had been proposed and widely applied during the past few decades, and some of them are often considered to be more robust than their related inorganic proxies. Usually, however, with the knowledge of correlative biology and geochemistry expanding, new problems emerge that affect the initial hypothesis on which those proxies had been established. Using a comprehensive collection of world-wide marine sediment samples from ODP, IODP, and national expeditions, we will analyze the organic molecular composition in various depositional environments and profile of selected biomarkers through some extreme geological periods. In this project some targeted organic proxies will be tested, and meanwhile a general survey of special biomarker distribution might help to develop new promising proxy for future subjects.
This project will be integrated in the framework of observations to be acquired by other EUROPROX partners and thus create ideal conditions for stimulating interdisciplinary interactions with other graduate students. A series of analytical techniques, such as, HPLC-MS, GC-MS and GC-isotope ratio-MS, will be applied for both fossil lipids and intact polar lipids (IPLs, which represent the living organism signal) analysis. Therefore, we will not only focus on the exploration of biomarker proxies with the fossil molecule preserved but also the signal of living microbial communities in deep sediment and its contribution to the fossil biomarker pool.
The project is following up EUROPROX Project II-6.