Lipid Biomarkers of Suspended Particulate Organic Matter in Lake Bled (NW Slovenia)

Abstract

Abstract The fatty acid, hydrocarbon and sterol composition were used to investigate the organic sources and compositional changes in particulate organic matter (POM) and trap material in the water column in the deepest part of Lake Bled (NW Slovenia) in October 2006. Fatty acids distribution of algal origin were abundant in particles and trap material in epilimnion, while in anoxic zone POM and trap material were enriched in bacterial fatty acids (e.g. 16:1n-7, 18:1n-7, 18:1n-9, iso-C14-C16 and anteiso-C15). The lowest δ13C value of −51.7‰ was observed in 18:1n-7 FA in trap material and was the only FA which could be linked to methanotrophic bacteria. In addition Zooplankton left a marked imprint on particulate lipids and trap material at 12 m by predominance of n-C18:0 over n-C16:0 FA, short-chain, even-carbon n-alkenols, the high proportion of cholest-5-en-3β-ol (44.8% of total sterol concentration (TST)), cholesterol/phytosterol ratio of 0.49 and δ15NPN values of 6.8 and 11.7‰. It was shown that lacustrine phytoplankton biosynthesize 24-ethylcholest-5-en-3β-ol which is often used as a marker of terrigenous organic matter. Phytoplankton represented an important source of cholest-5-en-3β-ol and 24-methylcholest-5,22(E)-dien-3β-ol, while 24-ethylcholesta-5,22E-dien-3β-ol and 24-methylcholest-5-en-3β-ol were of terrestrial origin. There was an evidence of microbial transformation of Δ5-stenols to 5α(H)-stanols in POM and trap material in hypolimnion. Keywords: lakelipidsPOMstable isotopes Acknowledgments This research was carried out within the framework of Research Programme P1-0143 supported by the Slovenian Research Agency. The authors thank Špela Remec-Rekar for providing the data on the characteristic parameters of the water column of Lake Bled, Stojan Žigon for his help with sampling and Silva Perko for analytical assistance. The organic carbon data were provided by N. Kovač. Special thanks are given to Prof. Roger H. Pain for linguistic corrections and two reviewers for their comments, which greatly improved the manuscript.