Hydrocarbons in benthic algae from the eastern Gulf of Mexico

✍ Scribed by J. S. Lytle; T. F. Lytle; J. N. Gearing; P. J. Gearing

• Publisher: Springer-Verlag
• Year: 1979
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 898 KB
• Volume: 51
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0025-3162
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00386808

✦ Synopsis

Thirty-six samples of benthic algae were collected from the continental shelf along the eastern Gulf of Mexico. The algae contain 82.8 • 143 ppm aliphatic hydrocarbons by dry weight and 11.8 • 22.7 ppm aromatic and polyolefinic hydrocarbons. The aliphatic constituents of red algae are composed almost entirely of n-C17 (70 to 95% of aliphatic weight); green algae have varying amounts of n-alkanes in the range of n-C15 to n-C19 , with homologous series of odd carbon number n-alkenes. Phytadienes occur as high as 740 ppm dry weight in the green algae and do not appear to be related to time or place of collection or to presence of any petroleum pollutants. The single brown algal species contains predominantly n-C15. About 30% of the samples have hydrocarbons resembling degraded petroleum residues, but no petroleum pollution of recent origin was detected in any specimen.