Abstract: Botrvococcus Braunii, a Freshwater Green Alga: Comparison of its Biomarker and Hydrocarbon Chemistry to a Boghead Algal Shale from the Stellarton Basin, Nova Scotia

Rae A. Royle, L. Mike Darnell, Barry J. Katz, Thomas Jorjorian

A laboratory culture of Botrvococcus braunii grown under different conditions, produced different biomarker and hydrocarbon compounds as analyzed by pyrolysis-gas ehromatography and pyrolysis-gas ehromatography-mass spectrometry. Data obtained on the living organism are compared with similar geochemical data on a hydrogen-rich boghead shale from the Stellarton basin of Nova Scotia. This shale, which consists predominantly of the algal maceral telalginite, yielded upon geochemical analysis a complete complement of saturated hydrocarbons and biomarkers. The living organism, on the other hand, is enriched in oxygen-containing functional groups and hydrocarbons containing two or more unsaturated bonds, as indicated by pyrolysis-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Compounds identified in lude phytidienes, unsaturated organic acids, and unsaturated botryococcane precursors. The transition from unsaturated to saturated biomarkers appears to coincide with diagenetic alteration of the organic matter following burial.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90986©1994 AAPG Annual Convention, Denver, Colorado, June 12-15, 1994