引言 关于海洋环境中甾醇量和分布的知识,在过去十年中有了显著的增加,从而导致对Blumer(1975)所预计的自然界的复杂性有了更好的了解。近年来,由于在分析甾醇方面应用玻璃-毛细管气相色谱-质谱技术的发展,使得可以区分的单个甾醇的数量急剧增加。这种鉴别单个甾醇的分析能力的增加,对我们更多地了解海洋沉积物中甾醇的地球化学产生了很大影响。 INTRODUCTION Knowledge of the amount and distribution of sterols in the marine environment has increased dramatically over the past decade, leading to a better understanding of the complexities of nature predicted by Blumer (1975). In recent years, due to the application of glass-capillary GC-MS in the analysis of sterols, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of distinct sterols that can be distinguished. This increased ability to identify individual sterols has a significant impact on our understanding of the geochemistry of sterols in marine sediment.