Lipid biomarkers of manuring practice in relict anthropogenic soils

Abstract

This investigation tests the extent to which free soil lipids reflect known manuring practices associated with a relict twelfth-to nineteenth-century anthropogenic deep top soil in West Mainland Orkney. The results demonstrate that total lipid extracts reflect the expected spatial variability in manuring intensity across the deep top soil area, declining with distance from the farmstead. Specific organic manure inputs are also identified; the presence of campesterol, sitosterol and 5β-stigmastanol confirm expected composted turf and ruminant animal manure application to the deep top soil area. A departure from the expected results is the presence of coprostanol, reflecting omnivorous animal manure deposition and confirmed as pig manure through the identification of hyodeoxycholic acid. These analyses establish that lipid biomarkers of past land-management activity are retained in medieval to early modern relict landscapes, and that they allow more precise identification of manure sources and patterns of deposition than conventional pedological techniques. Further, they suggest that historic documentation forms only a partial record of manuring practices

Soil quality attributes, soil resilience, and legacy effects following topsoil removal and one-time amendments

“…For example, lipid biomarkers were able to distinguish three types of organic amendments on archaeological soils from 12th-century Britain: composted turf, ruminant animal manure, and omnivorous animal manure (Simpson et al 1999). In our study, the N LF fraction proved most sensitive in tracking the legacy effect of manure, being the only attribute to show a significant decline (28%) from 2004 to 2012.…”

Early Neolithic Agriculture in County Mayo, Republic of Ireland: Geoarchaeology of the Céide Fields, Belderrig, and Rathlackan

“…The 5b-stanols are acknowledged biomarkers of fecal input, and have been used in both archaeological and pedological research (Bethell et al 1994;Bull et al 1999aBull et al , 1999bBull et al , 2002Leeming et al 1996;Simpson et al 1998Simpson et al , 1999b.…”

Climate impacts on human settlement and agricultural activities in northern Norway revealed through sediment biogeochemistry

“…Several studies have successfully applied the concentrations and ratios of coprostanol and other fecal sterols to examine contemporary fecal contamination from the presence of humans or domesticated animals, as well as to quantify the relative inputs from each source (20,21). Various fecal sterol indices have also been derived from sediments in archaeological sites, as indicators of the manuring practices of agricultural land (22)(23)(24)(25), but our study uses these compounds in a paleolimnological study as a proxy for human and livestock population dynamics over thousands of years (SI Text, Molecular Markers and Associated Indices). We believe this approach has great potential for much wider applications in archeological science.…”