AccScience Publishing / AJWEP / Volume 11 / Issue 1 / DOI: 10.3233/AJW-2014-11_1_05
RESEARCH ARTICLE

Biomarkers in the Siak River System, E. Sumatra, Indonesia

Gerd Liebezeit1* Ralf Wöstmann1 Daniel Ziehe1
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1 Institute for Chemistry and Biology of the Marine Environment Schleusenstrasse 1, 26382 Wilhelmshaven, Germany
AJWEP 2014, 11(1), 25–40; https://doi.org/10.3233/AJW-2014-11_1_05
Submitted: 13 September 2013 | Accepted: 11 October 2013 | Published: 1 January 2014
© 2014 by the Author(s). This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution -Noncommercial 4.0 International License (CC-by the license) ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ )
Abstract

A total of 33 plant species and 122 surface sediments were obtained from March 2004 to November 2008 in the Siak River system including its major tributaries and coastal areas. Grain size distribution shows the sediments to be sands to silt with a general trend of coarser sediments in the upper reaches and finer ones in the estuary. The expected linear relationship between the content of organic carbon and the mud fraction of the sediments (<63 μm) is distorted by input of (a) clay-sized, organic-poor material from river bank erosion and (b) input of coarse plant detritus. All samples were analysed for n-alkanes and steroids. For all plant samples and a limited number of sediment samples, fatty acids were also determined. The data indicate a variety of organic carbon sources, the dominant one being river bank vegetation. Urban and industrial discharges, peat erosion and atmospheric deposition of black carbon and biomarkers might also play a role in controlling the lipid composition of the sedimentary organic carbon pool.

Keywords
Siak river (Sumatra)
grain size distribution
steroids
fatty acids
alkanes. Blackwater river
peat
Conflict of interest
The authors declare they have no competing interests.
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