Fractionation Studies of Aquatic Fatty Acids from Coastal & Off-Shore Marine Environments of Southern Florida

Abstract

The nature, quantity, and distribution of dissolved and particulate-adsorbed fatty acids in seawater were studied in different coastal marine environments of southern Florida. The total fatty acid concentration increased in surface waters as sampling proceeded from off-shore to terrestrially influenced areas. The overall degree of lipid unsaturation did not vary significantly with this transition, however, major changes in this parameter and in fatty acid speciation were apparent within different lipid fractions. Unsaturated fatty acids in particulate-adsorbed matter were found to fractionate primarily with neutral lipid suggesting an abundance of triacylglycerols and/or wax esters, whereas, unsaturated fatty acids in dissolved lipid were partitioned almost equally into both polar and neutral fractions. Monounsaturates ranged between 0 and 10.8% of total fatty acid while polyunsaturated fatty acids were negligible in all seawater samples (< 1% of the total).