Articles | Volume 7, issue 2
https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-7-785-2021
https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-7-785-2021
Review article
 | 
25 Nov 2021
Review article |  | 25 Nov 2021

Transformation of n-alkanes from plant to soil: a review

Carrie L. Thomas, Boris Jansen, E. Emiel van Loon, and Guido L. B. Wiesenberg

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Cited articles

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Andersson, R. A. and Meyers, P. A.: Effect of climate change on delivery and degradation of lipid biomarkers in a Holocene peat sequence in the Eastern European Russian Arctic, Org. Geochem., 53, 63–72, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.orggeochem.2012.05.002, 2012. 
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Short summary
Plant organs, such as leaves, contain a variety of chemicals that are eventually deposited into soil and can be useful for studying organic carbon cycling. We performed a systematic review of available data of one type of plant-derived chemical, n-alkanes, to determine patterns of degradation or preservation from the source plant to the soil. We found that while there was degradation in the amount of n-alkanes from plant to soil, some aspects of the chemical signature were preserved.