In order to study the impact of global warming on the ecological environments of high latitude ocean,the lipid biomarkers of a sediment core called BL16were studied,which was collected during the Fifth Chinese National Arctic Expedition Cruise at the Bering Sea shelf.These compounds,including saturated hydrocarbons and fatty acids;show that the organic matter in the sediments is the mixed input of terrigenous and marine sources.The long chain n-alkanes and long chain saturated fatty acids are mainly derived from terrestrial higher plants,while saturated iso-and anteiso-fatty acids mainly originate from marine autotrophic bacteria.Two of the concentrations of short chain n-alkanes,anteiso-alkanes and alkylcyclopentanes are well interrelated,suggesting that these compounds share the same source and are mainly from phytoplankton and microbes.The relative ratios of the short to long chain n-alkanes (SigmaC15-21/SigmaC23-33)vary from 0.14to 0.90in sediments,indicating that the n-alkanes are primarily derived from terrestrial sources. The concentrations of short chain n-alkanes,anteiso-alkanes and alkylcyclopentanes,and the relative abundances of saturated iso-,anteiso-fatty acids to saturated long chain fatty acids are consistent with total organic carbon(TOC)and total nitrogen(TN)in the sediment core and show an apparent increase since the 1970s,which may reflect the continuously increasing trend of marine primary productivity and a sensitive response to global warming.