Hydrogen isotopic compositions of n-alkanes from terrestrial plants correlate with their ecological life forms

Stable hydrogen isotopic compositions (δD) of compound-specific biomarkers, such as n-alkanes from plant leaf waxes, can be used as a proxy for paleoclimatic change. However, the relationship between hydrogen isotopes of plant leaf wax and plant ecological life forms is not well understood. Here, we report the δD of n-alkanes from 34 modern terrestrial plants, including twenty-one C₃ plants and thirteen C₄ plants from northwestern China, determined using gas chromatography/thermal conversion/isotope ratio mass spectrometry. Our data show that the stable hydrogen isotopes are poorly correlated with the plant photosynthetic pathway (C₃ vs. C₄) and that they do not give clear regional precipitation signals. Together with a comparative analysis of published δD values from plant leaf waxes in other regions, we believe that the stable hydrogen isotope of plant leaf waxes is more closely related to ecological life forms of these terrestrial plants (i.e. tree, shrub, and grass). In general, the grasses have more negative δD values than the co-occurring trees and shrubs. Our findings suggest that the δD values of sedimentary leaf waxes from higher plants may record changes of a plant ecosystem under the influence of environmental alteration and imply that reconstruction of the paleoclimate using δD values from plant n-alkanes should be based upon specific plant taxa, and comparison should be made among plants with similar ecological life forms.