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Abstract
The lipids in a sediment core from Lake Valencia, a hypereutrophic freshwater lake in Venezuela, are examined to understand environmental changes over the last 13,000 years. From the latest Pleistocene to the earliest Holocene, total organic carbon (TOC) substantially increased from 2.2 to 10%, while total organic carbon over total nitrogen (TOC/TN) decreased from as high as 34 to as low as 10. Correspondingly, the concentration of terrestrially derived triterpenoids markedly decreased, and the dominant n-alkane shifted from C31 to C23 or C25. During the same period, algal biomarkers such as botryococcenes, dinosterol, isoarborinol, C20 HBIs and 1,15C32 keto-ol markedly increased in abundance. These changes suggested a greater contribution of algal organic matter at the onset of the Holocene, which was concurrent with increasing rainfall and the formation of a permanent lake (Lake Valencia) in the Aragua Valley, Venezuela. The age profile of Paq, a n-alkane based proxy, showed large oscillations (0.20-0.81), reflecting historical variations in source strength of submerged/floating vs. terrestrial/emergent OM inputs. An abrupt increase in tetrahymanol abundance at 7,260 cal years BP suggests the establishment of an oxic-anoxic boundary in the lake's water column. After reaching its maximum abundance at 2,100 cal year BP, botryococcenes, a biomarker of Botryococcus braunii, gradually decreased to below the detection limit in the uppermost sediments, while different algal/microbial biomarkers such as diploptene, dinosterol and isoarborinol substantially increased. These different historical profiles of algal/microbial biomarkers reflect different responses of source organisms to environmental changes throughout this period. The δ13C determinations presented exceptionally enriched values for botryococcene isomers (-7.7 to -15.1[per thousand]), indicating the utilization of bicarbonate as carbon sources in an extremely productive ecosystem. (PUBLICATION ABSTRACT)