Lipid Biomarkers from the McMurdo Ice Shelf's Supraglacial Meltwater Ponds

This dataset contains GC/MS datafiles of sterol and sterane lipid fractions derived from the microbial mats which grow within the meltwater ponds of the McMurdo Ice Shelf. These ephemeral ponds form during the warm season across the undulating ice off the coast of Bratina Island and remain frozen for the rest of the year. The ponds are lined with cyanobacterial mats and the dynamic landscape additionally hosts relict mats from dried ponds and marine debris on the ice surface. Briefly, total lipids were extracted from the microbial mats; the sterol fractions derived from these total lipid extracts were derivatized and run in full scan on a GC/MSD. A portion of the sterol fractions were subjected to catalytic hydrogenation/hydrogenolysis to convert sterols into their sterane hydrocarbon counterparts; these resulting steranes were run in dynamic multiple reaction monitoring mode (dMRM) via GC/QQQ.