Assessment of the formation and modification and degradation of marine kerogen at a molecular level

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To better understand the genesis, nature, modification and degradation of marine kerogen at a molec-ular level, the project connects fossil marine biotic remains with their source organisms through their bio(geo)chemistry. This is done in three mutually supporting ways:1) Assessment of natural kerogen formation by comparing the biogeochemistries of distinct recent and fossil (botanical, zoological) structures. Target structures are recent (cultured) and fossil (from sediments) marine palynomorphs as proxies for marine kerogen. The approach takes advantage of the direct morphological link between the recent organism and is fossil counterpart.2) Experiments monitoring kerogen formation. This aims at quantifying the biological, physical and chemical influences on kerogen (trans)formation in laboratory and by in situ experiments. Systematic assessment of individual factors influencing kerogen formation is needed to evaluate the natural pro-cesses observed, to obtain a mechanistic understanding of taphonomic processes and for modelling degradation kinetics. Experiments at natural conditions as well as elevated pressure and/or tempera-tures on lipids, macromolecules and their combinations provide a bridge between the transition of short-term and long-term processes.3) Modelling of kerogen formation and transformation. The aim is identifying gaps and mismatches between theory, experimental results and in situ observations. This provides feedback for the other subprojects and leads to a fundamental and quantitative understanding of the kinetics and reaction mechanisms involved.