Abstract

Dissolved Organic Matter (DOM) is an important component of the global carbon cycle. Unscrambling the structural footprint of DOM is key to understand its biogeochemical transformations at the mechanistic level. Although numerous studies have improved our knowledge of DOM chemical makeup, its three-dimensional picture remains largely unrevealed. In this work, we compare four solid phase extracted (SPE) DOM samples from three different freshwater ecosystems using high resolution mobility and ultrahigh-resolution Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance tandem mass spectrometry (FT-ICR MS/MS). Structural families were identified based on neutral losses at the level of nominal mass using continuous accumulation of selected ions-collision induced dissociation (CASI-CID)FT-ICR MS/MS. Comparison of the structural families indicated dissimilarities in the structural footprint of this sample set. The …