This book describes the photooxidation and autoxidation of lipid components in phototrophic organisms. These two processes, which act intensively during the senescence of phototrophs, have been relatively neglected in the specialist literature. The text details the mechanisms involved in photosensitive type II oxidation and radical oxidation (autoxidation) of the main unsaturated lipids, focusing on the specificity of the oxidation products formed and their potential to act as tracers of these processes. It then looks at the effects of temperature and solar irradiation on the efficiency of type II photooxidation processes, and examines the possibility of transferring photooxidative damage to non-phototrophic materials.
The book concludes with a detailed description of the potential interactions between biotic and abiotic degradation processes which, although very complex, must be taken into account when studying the fate of organic matter in the environment.
Jean-François Rontani studied chemistry at the École Centrale d'Ingénieurs in Marseille, France, and obtained his doctorate in 1986 from the Université Aix-Marseille III. He then joined the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), where he began to specialise in the abiotic degradation of organic matter. He is Director of Research at the CNRS and works at the Institut océanographique de la Méditerranée in France. He has accumulated 38 years of research experience in organic geochemistry, acquiring unrivalled expertise in the use of lipid tracers and mass spectrometry techniques (GC-MS, GC-MS/MS and GC-QTOF) to monitor the biotic and abiotic degradation of organic matter in the environment. He has published 174 articles and nine book chapters.
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