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Abstract

Summary

Glycerol dibiphytanyl glycerol tetraether (GDGT) membrane lipids of archaea and bacteria are commonly used to reconstruct past environmental conditions, but their application has been primarily limited to reconstructions of temperature and pH, based on their relative abundances. However, their isotopic compositions may hold additional paleoenvironmental information. The carbon isotopic composition of archaeal GDGTs has been routinely investigated but the hydrogen stable isotopic composition dD remains largely unstudied. Recent studies suggest that the hydrogen isotopic composition of GDGTs of Thaumarchaeota may serve as a paleohydrological proxy, due to their primarily autotrophic incorporation of hydrogen from water. Two established GDGT cleavage and hydrogenation methods - 1) using boron tribromide and lithium triethylborohydride and 2) using hydroiodic acid and platinum oxide combined with H2 - have been modified and used since their initial publication, but they have never been compared in terms of yield, recovery, reproducibility or isotopic fractionation. We comprehensively assessed these methods and provide recommendations for ether cleavage and reduction protocols that provide high sample recovery and reproducibility with low, but consistent and reliably correctable, hydrogen isotopic fractionation. This represents an important step in the further development of dD of GDGTs as a possible paleoenvironmental proxy.

© EAGE Publications BV
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/content/papers/10.3997/2214-4609.202533286
2025-09-07
2026-02-14

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