Lignin biomarkers signatures of common plants and soils of Eastern Canada

Lignin CuO oxidation byproducts have been successfully used as biomarkers to describe terrigenous organic matter (TOM) dynamics in the environment in particular to understand various pedological processes. The fact that the major lignin biomarkers data-set used in environmental studies in temperate zones across the globe is based on pure vegetal samples from the Northwestern U.S.A. constitutes a major drawback in this field of research. This study presents a new lignin biomarker data-set of common plant species and soil types from the forest domain of Eastern Canada. Our results show that lignin signatures in pure vegetal samples can be significantly different from those listed as references in the literature for the same plant type (angiosperm/gymnosperm) demonstrating that location is a crucial parameter to consider. We also present characteristic lignin signatures of boreal soils that have evolved from the taxon of tree that grow on such soils. Some watershed specificities such as the presence of Sphagnum can increase the difficulty to decipher lignin sources. Specifically determining lignin signatures for pure plants and corresponding soils in a region of study is recommended to effectively use lignin biomarkers to study TOM dynamics at the watershed scale of that region.