Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 1 - 1 of 1
Full-Text Articles in Geology
Utilizing Lipid Biomarkers To Understand The Microbial Community Structure Of Deep Subsurface Black Shale Formations, Rawlings Akondi
Utilizing Lipid Biomarkers To Understand The Microbial Community Structure Of Deep Subsurface Black Shale Formations, Rawlings Akondi
Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports
The deep subsurface environment has been known to host microbes as early as 1926 and has also been suggested to potentially account for as much as 50% of the Earth`s biomass. Researchers have shown that microbes alter their membrane lipid components in response to physiological stress, producing stress indicative lipid biomarkers. However, little effort has been made to understand the subsurface microbial community of the shale ecosystem which is increasingly being exploited and altered by addition of drilling and hydraulic fluids to meet our growing energy needs. Phospholipid fatty acids (PLFAs) are microbial lipid biomarkers and are found in all …