Do Interspecific Differences in the Stable Hydrogen Isotopic Composition of n-Alkanes Reflect Variation in Plant Water Sources or in Biosynthetic Fractionation?

Abstract:

Normal alkanes (n-alkanes) are long-chain fatty acids that are a component of the leaf cuticle of all terrestrial plants. Since the hydrogen in the n-alkanes is derived from the hydrogen in plants’ water sources and is non-exchangeable, the stable hydrogen isotopic composition (δD) of the n-alkanes provides information about the δD of environmental water. At present, it is unclear whether a single biosynthetic fractionation factor can be used to reconstruct the δD of environmental water from the δD of n-alkanes derived from different plant species. To address this question, we studied the translation of the δD signal from environmental water into n-alkanes in a diverse plant community at Tumamoc Hill, Arizona, USA. Over the course of one annual cycle, we monitored δD of atmospheric water vapor, precipitation, soil water, xylem water, leaf water, and n-alkanes. We found that n-alkane δD varied substantially between species that were sampled concurrently, but that the observed range of variation was quantitatively consistent with the predictions of a Craig-Gordon-type model parameterized with a single biosynthetic fractionation factor. These findings indicate that the variability of n-alkane δD between co-occurring species could be primarily attributable to interspecific differences in water sources, rather than interspecific differences in the biosynthetic fractionation factor. Controlled experiments are needed to evaluate whether n-alkane biosynthesis is in fact adequately described by a single biosynthetic fractionation factor across species.