Plant wax n-alkane and n-alkanoic acid abundances, carbon and hydrogen isotopic compositions in eleven soil profiles along a Serengeti transect

The samples are modern soils and the temporal span of the soil depth profiles is unconstrained, likely centuries to millennia. The survey is intended to observe C4 grassland vegetation signals in the carbon isotopic composition of soil bulk organics and n-alkanes and n-alkanoic acids that are commonly used as proxies for past vegetation.

These modern calibrations can inform reconstructions of East African paleoenvironments using the same proxies in geological archives. Bulk organic data include total organic carbon concentration and carbon isotopic composition obtained by elemental analyzer cavity ring down spectroscopy. Compound specific data are reported for the n-alkanes and n-alkanoic acids; data for each homologous series include concentrations obtained by gas chromatography flame ionization detection, as well as carbon and hydrogen isotopic composition obtained by gas chromatography isotope ratio mass spectrometry, performed 2018-2019 at the University of Southern California.