The impact of soil chemistry, moisture and temperature on branched and isoprenoid GDGTs in soils: A study using six globally distributed elevation transects

Cindy De Jonge; Jingjing Guo; Petter Hällberg; Marco Griepentrog; Hamdi Rifai; Andreas Richter; Edson Ramirez; Xinbao Zhang; Rienk H. Smittenberg; Francien Peterse; Pascal Boeckx; Gerd Dercon

doi:10.1016/j.orggeochem.2023.104706

The impact of soil chemistry, moisture and temperature on branched and isoprenoid GDGTs in soils: A study using six globally distributed elevation transects

Cindy De Jonge, Jingjing Guo, Petter Hällberg, Marco Griepentrog, Hamdi Rifai, Andreas Richter, Edson Ramirez, Xinbao Zhang, Rienk H. Smittenberg, Francien Peterse, Pascal Boeckx, Gerd Dercon

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

Glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers (GDGTs) are microbial membrane-spanning lipids that are produced in a variety of environments. To better understand the potentially confounding effect of soil chemistry on the temperature relationship of branched GDGTs (brGDGTs), isoprenoid GDGTs (isoGDGTs) and GDGT-based proxies MBT’_5ME and TEX₈₆, soils from 6 elevation transects (mean annual air temperature 0 – 26 ℃, n = 74) were analyzed. Corroborating earlier work, the MBT’_5ME index correlates well with mean annual air temperature in the low pH (pH < 7), non-arid soils under study (r = 0.87, p < 0.001). However, a clear over-estimation of reconstructed temperature in the lowest pH (<3.5) soils is observed, explained by the correlation between brGDGT Ia and free acidity. TEX₈₆ also shows a significant correlation with mean annual air temperature (r = 0.45, p < 0.001), driven by temperature dependent concentration changes of isoGDGTs 3 and cren’. However, an overarching correlation with P/E values dominates concentration changes of all supposed Thaumarchaeotal isoGDGTs lipids (GDGT1-3, cren and cren’), implying a potential impact of soil moisture on TEX₈₆ values. In addition to identifying the impact of these confounding factors on the temperature proxy, GDGT ratios that can be used to constrain changes in soil chemistry, specifically exchangeable Ca²⁺, sum of basic cations, exchangeable Fe³⁺ and sum of soil metals are proposed (0.53 < r² < 0.68), while existing ratios for soil moisture availability are tested for the first time in a dataset of non-arid soils. While the impact of soil chemistry on GDGTs may complicate the interpretation of their temperature proxies, our proposed GDGT ratios can potentially be used to constrain a subset of soil chemistry changes through time.

Original language	English
Article number	104706
Pages (from-to)	1-15
Number of pages	15
Journal	Organic Geochemistry
Volume	187
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.orggeochem.2023.104706
Publication status	Published - Jan 2024

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Authors

Funding

We acknowledge the insightful comments of two anonymous reviewers and the editorial team that have improved the manuscript. The authors of this manuscript acknowledge the following funding agencies; SNSF PRIMA Fellowship (PR00P2_179783) to CDJ, Swedish National Science Foundation (VR) grant 2017-04430 to RS, Bolin Center for Climate Research funded field work on Sumatra to PH. Soils from Austria, Bolivia, China and Tanzania are collected through the regional Technical Cooperation Project INT5153, from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). A NWO-Vidi grant (192.074) was awarded to FP. In addition, we are grateful for assistance in processing samples for analysis on EA-irms (ETH Zurich) by Madalina Jäggi.

Funders	Funder number
Swedish National Science Foundation
Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung	PR00P2_179783
Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek	192.074
Vetenskapsrådet	2017-04430, INT5153
International Atomic Energy Agency

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Jonge, C. D., Guo, J., Hällberg, P., Griepentrog, M., Rifai, H., Richter, A., Ramirez, E., Zhang, X., Smittenberg, R. H., Peterse, F., Boeckx, P., & Dercon, G. (2024). The impact of soil chemistry, moisture and temperature on branched and isoprenoid GDGTs in soils: A study using six globally distributed elevation transects. Organic Geochemistry, 187, 1-15. Article 104706. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.orggeochem.2023.104706

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title = "The impact of soil chemistry, moisture and temperature on branched and isoprenoid GDGTs in soils: A study using six globally distributed elevation transects",

abstract = "Glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers (GDGTs) are microbial membrane-spanning lipids that are produced in a variety of environments. To better understand the potentially confounding effect of soil chemistry on the temperature relationship of branched GDGTs (brGDGTs), isoprenoid GDGTs (isoGDGTs) and GDGT-based proxies MBT{\textquoteright}5ME and TEX86, soils from 6 elevation transects (mean annual air temperature 0 – 26 ℃, n = 74) were analyzed. Corroborating earlier work, the MBT{\textquoteright}5ME index correlates well with mean annual air temperature in the low pH (pH < 7), non-arid soils under study (r = 0.87, p < 0.001). However, a clear over-estimation of reconstructed temperature in the lowest pH (<3.5) soils is observed, explained by the correlation between brGDGT Ia and free acidity. TEX86 also shows a significant correlation with mean annual air temperature (r = 0.45, p < 0.001), driven by temperature dependent concentration changes of isoGDGTs 3 and cren{\textquoteright}. However, an overarching correlation with P/E values dominates concentration changes of all supposed Thaumarchaeotal isoGDGTs lipids (GDGT1-3, cren and cren{\textquoteright}), implying a potential impact of soil moisture on TEX86 values. In addition to identifying the impact of these confounding factors on the temperature proxy, GDGT ratios that can be used to constrain changes in soil chemistry, specifically exchangeable Ca2+, sum of basic cations, exchangeable Fe3+ and sum of soil metals are proposed (0.53 < r2 < 0.68), while existing ratios for soil moisture availability are tested for the first time in a dataset of non-arid soils. While the impact of soil chemistry on GDGTs may complicate the interpretation of their temperature proxies, our proposed GDGT ratios can potentially be used to constrain a subset of soil chemistry changes through time.",

author = "Jonge, {Cindy De} and Jingjing Guo and Petter H{\"a}llberg and Marco Griepentrog and Hamdi Rifai and Andreas Richter and Edson Ramirez and Xinbao Zhang and Smittenberg, {Rienk H.} and Francien Peterse and Pascal Boeckx and Gerd Dercon",

note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2023 The Authors",

year = "2024",

month = jan,

doi = "10.1016/j.orggeochem.2023.104706",

language = "English",

volume = "187",

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Jonge, CD, Guo, J, Hällberg, P, Griepentrog, M, Rifai, H, Richter, A, Ramirez, E, Zhang, X, Smittenberg, RH, Peterse, F, Boeckx, P & Dercon, G 2024, 'The impact of soil chemistry, moisture and temperature on branched and isoprenoid GDGTs in soils: A study using six globally distributed elevation transects', Organic Geochemistry, vol. 187, 104706, pp. 1-15. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.orggeochem.2023.104706

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AU - Hällberg, Petter

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AU - Richter, Andreas

AU - Ramirez, Edson

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The impact of soil chemistry, moisture and temperature on branched and isoprenoid GDGTs in soils: A study using six globally distributed elevation transects

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Funding

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