作为一个新的生态环境信息的载体,粪土沉积层很好地恢复了第四纪古生态记录,包括历史时期鸟类数量变化乃至人类文明历史,以及它们和气候环境变化的关系.在本研究中,我们分析了南极阿德雷岛企鹅粪土沉积物、北极斯瓦尔巴群岛的Ny-Alesund的海鸟粪土沉积物、中国南海西沙群岛中的东岛海鸟的聚居地沉积物、安徽省蒙城县尉迟寺人类文明古文化遗址等沉积物的生物标志物性质,并分别与生物标型元素组合对比.尽管同为粪土沉积层,但是由于所处地理位置不同、沉积环境不同、鸟类或人类粪便的不同以及当地植被的不同,四地沉积物的生物标志物显示出了不同的特征.相对生物标型元素组合,生物标志物提供了更为丰富的生态信息,包括历史时期鸟类数量和植被丰度变化.生物标志物和生核标型元素相互印证,完善了我们对粪土江积层的了解,加深了对这四个区域生态和环境演变过程的理解,使我们得以更好地研究古生态演变和古环境变化之间的关系和响应.
As a novel carrier of paleoecology and paleoenvironment, fecal sediments have been used to reconstruct the history of seabird population or human civilization of Quaternary. Herein our study, we analyzed biomarkers of ornithogenic sediment from penguin colonies on Ardley Island, Antarctica; ornithogenic sediment from seabird colonies of Ny-Alesund, Svalbard, Arctic; ornithogenic sediment from seabird colonies of Dongdao Island, South China Sea, China and paleoculture of Yuchisi Site, Mengcheng, Anhui, China. Biomarkers of the four fecal sediments show quite different distributions due to their different locations, sedimental environments, different seabirds or human feces and different vegetations. Compared with the bioelements, the biomarkers can provide more abundant information about the evolutions of the ecosystems, including the historical seabird populations and vegetation abundances. The combination of organic and inorganic biomarkers could give more accurate and richer information for their characteristics and also for paleoenvironment and paleoclimate.