Lipid biomarkers, molecular fossils preserved in diverse environmental archives, provide powerful insights into the interplay between the biosphere, climate, and Earth's surface processes. However, disentangling the complex factors controlling their production, transport, and preservation remains a fundamental challenge for interpreting the environmental signals they encode. This session aims to bridge the gap between modern process studies and paleoenvironmental applications.
We invite contributions employing cutting-edge techniques such as Compound Specific Radiocarbon Analyses (CSRA), Compound Specific Isotope Analyses (i.e, δ²H, δ¹³C, δ¹⁵N), and others to trace their synthesis, biogeochemical cycling, and ecological relationships. We particularly welcome contributions that use lipid records to reconstruct past climate and environmental changes while considering variations in biomarker fluxes and transport mechanisms. We also invite submissions that integrate lipid data with numerical models to quantify fluxes, assess environmental controls, or project future biogeochemical and climate changes.
The session aims to encompass the latest advances of lipid biomarker research across a broad range of environmental archives (terrestrial soils, marine and lake sediments, ice cores, and aerosols) from contemporary to past Earth system dynamics. By bringing together scientists focused on refining our knowledge of lipid sources and sinks, we aim to broaden our understanding of past changes and future ecosystem responses.