How Organic Carbon Becomes Biomarkers

Organic material and inorganic material are chemically different. In an ecosystem, living material includes leaves, fungi, bark, and tissue. Non-living material includes rocks, their minerals, oxygen, water, and metals. Organic matter contains carbon linked to other carbon and hydrogen molecules, which sets it apart from ino...

The first step in paleoclimatology is to collect, or extract, the biomarkers from the sediment they are found in. Environmental samples are composed of non-organic components, such as minerals, water, and metals, and organic components that are created by living organisms in the area. Before these organic components can be used by scientists to ...