Terrestrial biomarkers : a proxy for reconstructing the past history of atmospheric circulation and vegetation changes

The Sea Air Exchange Program (SEAREX) has significantly contributed to the understanding of the long-range transport of aerosols, over distances of several thousand kilometers. Naturally occurring organic compounds (n-alkanes, fatty alcohols, long-chain n-aldehydes,...) of epicuticular waxes produced by terrestrial plant provide important background information on the source emission and atmospheric transport pathways of terrestrial carbon. Source identifications based on airborne biomarker distribution patterns during SEAREX experiment have shown to be consistent with the origin of the aerosols infered by isentropic air mass trajectories. More recent progress have been made from aerosol monitoring over several years, showing that leaf waxes are introduced into the atmosphere mainly by wind ablation off the living vegetation rather than from soil remobilization of detrital waxes during soil deflation. The ablated wax constituents would thus integrate the vegetation signature over large continental areas and might be applied to investigate vegetation changes at a regional scale. Few studies have shown that stratigraphic records of terrestrial biomarkers in hemi-pelagic and pelagic sediments remote from the continents, where pollen are lacking, can be useful tools to reconstruct the atmospheric circulation history and/or changes of the vegetation production.