Open AccessSources and Distribution of n-Alkanes in Borneo Peat Core, Sarawak, Malaysia
Author(s) -
Sher-Rine Kong,
Hasrizal Shaari,
Norhayati Mohd Tahir,
Swee Yun Pang,
Muhammad Fais Fadzil,
Abdullah Sulaiman
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
asian journal of chemistry/asian journal of chemistry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.145
H-Index - 34
eISSN - 0975-427X
pISSN - 0970-7077
DOI - 10.14233/ajchem.2020.22753
Subject(s) - peat , phytane , pristane , chemistry , environmental chemistry , wax , ecology , hydrocarbon , organic chemistry , biology
This work reported the n-alkanes contents in a 10 m peat core collected at Timbarap, Sarawak. Different biomarker proxies were used tounderstand the predominance of sources present in the tropical peatland of Borneo. The total concentrations of n-alkanes in selecteddepths of Timbarap peat core ranged between 0.01 and 12.60 μg/g with an average of 1.58 μg/g. The presence of strong odd-to-evenpredominance from higher molecular weight n-alkanes homologues with high values of carbon preference index (CPI) provide clearevidences of the terrestrial plant wax assemblages. Increment of low-molecular-weight n-alkanes provide an indicator of biogenic-aquaticorganic materials. The ratios of isoprenoids (pristane and phytane) have shown that the peat core was under anaerobic and reducingdepositionalconditions, which could result the predominance source that alternated between aquatic-biogenic and terrestrial-derivedmaterials.