Volatilomics, the examination of all biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs) emitted by an organism or system, holds potential as a novel screening tool for taxonomy, fitness, and ecological functioning. Volatilomics has been largely applied to terrestrial environments, but highly productive coastal marine systems, which are major sources of specific BVOCs, such as dimethyl sulfide, have been largely neglected. Volatilomic measurements are highly method-dependent, with different instrumentation impacting the diversity of identified BVOCs—therefore, understanding these biases is critical to reconcile studies. Here, we investigated BVOCs emitted by two species of coral endosymbiotic microalgae (Symbiodinium tridacnidorum and Durusdinium trenchii) using gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS) and comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography–time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GC × GC–TOFMS). Seven chemical classes were detected by both instruments, the most common being aromatic hydrocarbons. However, GC × GC resolved seven times more BVOCs than GC–MS (290 vs. 40), with a higher proportion of compounds tentatively identified (173 vs. 14). Notably, nine chemical classes were exclusively identified by GC × GC, including alkane, alkene, aldehyde, ester, and nitrile BVOCs—each potentially fulfilling undescribed functions in marine organisms. The microalgal species investigated shared a large proportion of BVOCs, and this result was consistent across instruments (97 and 98% shared compounds via GC × GC and GC–MS, respectively), suggesting consistent retrieval of general patterns between instruments. This method comparison is the first of its kind in marine systems and confirms the greater analytical power of GC × GC, required to help resolve complex BVOC emissions and the identification of their roles in marine systems.

挥发性有机物是对生物体或系统排放的所有生物源性挥发性有机化合物（BVOC）的检查，具有作为分类学，适应性和生态功能的新型筛选工具的潜力。挥发油学已广泛应用于陆地环境，但是高生产力的沿海海洋系统是特定BVOC的主要来源，例如二甲基硫醚，在很大程度上已被忽略。挥发度测量高度依赖于方法，并且不同的仪器会影响已识别的BVOC的多样性，因此，了解这些偏差对于调和研究至关重要。在这里，我们调查了两种珊瑚内共生微藻（Symbiodinium tridacnidorum和Durusdinium Trenchii）释放的BVOC。），使用气相色谱-质谱（GC-MS）和全面的二维气相色谱-飞行时间质谱（GC×GC-TOFMS）。两种仪器都检测到七个化学类别，最常见的是芳香烃。但是，GC×GC分离的BVOC比GC-MS高出七倍（290比40），初步鉴定出更高比例的化合物（173比14）。值得注意的是，GC×GC专门鉴定了九种化学类别，包括烷烃，烯烃，醛，酯和腈BVOC，每种可能在海洋生物中发挥未描述的功能。所研究的微藻物种共享大量的BVOC，并且该结果在各种仪器中均一致（分别通过GC×GC和GC–MS共享97％和98％的化合物）。建议对乐器之间的通用模式进行一致的检索。这种方法比较是海洋系统中的同类方法中的首次，它证实了GC×GC具有更大的分析能力，这有助于解决复杂的BVOC排放并确定其在海洋系统中的作用。