Variations in leaf wax n-alkane chain length and carbon isotope fractionation: applications for chemotaxonomy and paleoecology

Bush, Rosemary T.

doi:https://doi.org/10.21985/N2D478

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Variations in leaf wax n-alkane chain length and carbon isotope fractionation: applications for chemotaxonomy and paleoecology

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Because long-chain n-alkanes (n-C21 to n-C37) are found in the epicuticular leaf waxes of all vascular plants and are stable, long-lived molecules, the study of their molecular and isotopic compositions stands to serve as a potentially powerful tool in the fields of modern chemotaxonomy and paleoecology. This study attempts to evaluate the usefulness of n-alkane distributions as identifiers of plant species and groups using data from a wide range of plant species.

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