Aromatic biomarkers are defined here as aromatic hydrocarbons derived from natural products (primarily terpenoids) by diagenetic or catagenetic alteration (i.e. dehydrogenation and dealkylation). The structures of many aromatic biomarkers have been elucidated in detail by organic geochemists for application as chemical fossils (tracers) in the geologic record (Johns, 1986). The term biomarker evolved from early product-precursor relationships proposed in the 1960s (e.g. Streibl and Herout, 1969). The relevance of these naturally derived aromatic hydrocarbons (and sometimes oxygenated analogs) to environmental geochemistry became evident when polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) from anthropogenic or geogenic origins were found in Recent and contemporary sediments (e.g. Simoneit, 1977; LaFlamme and Hites, 1979; Wakeham et al., 1980a; Tan and Heit, 1981).
Many aromatic compounds are derived from terpenoids which are ubiquitous lipid components of higher order vegetation and...
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Cross-references
Biogeochemistry; Biomarker: aliphatic; Biomarker: assessment of thermal maturity ; Biomarker: higher plant; Coal: origin and diagenesis; Diagenesis; Hydrocarbons; Lipid biomarker; Lipids (eubacteria and archaebacteria); Oil–oil and oil–source rock correlation; Organics: sources and depositional environments; Porphyrins
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Simoneit, B.R.T. (1998). Biomarker: Aromatic. In: Geochemistry. Encyclopedia of Earth Science. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-4496-8_27
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