The Principle of Selective Preservation

Organic compounds and compound classes differ in their potential to be preserved in sediments and to survive early diagenesis. As a general mle, water-soluble organic compounds, or organic macromolecules, which are easily hydrolyzed to water-soluble monomers, have a low preservation potential. In contrast to this, compounds with a low solubility in water such as lipids and hydrolysis-resistant macromolecules are selectively enriched in the sedimentary organic matter. Table 

5 is a compilation of the source and preservation potential of some common organic compound types. It is based on anticipated chemical stabilities related to 

To complete the modified view of geomacromolecule formation, the process of natural vulcanisation (Fig. 4. 10) has been proposed to play a major role under suitable conditions (e g. Sinninghe Damste etal. 1989a, 1990 de Leeuw and Sinninghe Damste 1990). Many marine sediments contain high-molecular-weight 

As a conseqnence of the discussion of organo-mineral interaction for the preservation of organic matter in sediments (see Sect. 4.2), Collins et al. (1995) raised the qnestion if sorption of organic matter on mineral snrfaces did not lead to a rebirth of the classical 

Starch Vascular plants some algae bacteria - 

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