Nitrogen compounds marine organic matter

Pathways of carbon flow in natural environments have also been reconstracted using bulk stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes as well as compound-specific isotopic analysis of individual biomarker lipid component (Hayes et al, 1990) based on the fractionations involved during primary (photosynthetic) and secondary (heterotrophic) processes. Recently, compound-specific radiocarbon analysis of individual biomarker hpid has been shown to be a valuable technique to determine the source of marine organic matter (Eglinton et al., 1997). 

Degens, E.T. (1977) Molecular nature of nitrogenous compounds in seawater and recent marine sediments. In Organic Matter in Natural Waters (Hood, D.W., ed.), pp. 77-106, University of Alaska Press, Fairbanks, AK. 

Crude petroleum is a liquid that consists of hydrocarbons, as well as some related sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen compounds. Other elements, including metals, may be present in trace amounts. Crude oil is formed by the decay of marine animal and plant organisms that lived millions of years ago. Over many millions of years, under the influence of temperature, pressure, catalysts, radioactivity, and bacteria, the decayed matter was converted into what we now know as crude oil. The crude oil is trapped in pools beneath the ground by various geological formations. 

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