Yuan Huamao

Organic carbon source and burial during the past one hundred years in Jiaozhou Bay, North china.

Organic carbon (OC), total nitrogen (TN), and 210Pb in core sediment were measured to quantify the burial of organic carbon and the relative importance of allochthonous and autochthonous contributions during the past one hundred years in Jiaozhou Bay, North China. The core sediment was dated using 210Pb chronology, which is the most promising method for estimation of sedimentation rate on a time scale of 100-150 years. The variation of the burial flux of organic carbon in the past one hundred years can be divided into the following three stages: (1) relatively steady before 1980s; (2) increasing rapidly from the 1980s to a peak in the 1990s, and (3) decreasing from the 1990s to the present. The change is consistent with the amount of solid waste and sewage emptied into the bay. The OC:TN ratio was used to evaluate the source of organic carbon in the Jiaozhou Bay sediment. In the inner bay and bay mouth, the organic carbon was the main contributor from terrestrial sources, whereas only about half of organic carbon was contributed from terrestrial source in the outer bay. In the inner bay, the terrestrial source of organic carbon showed a steady change with an increase in the range of 69%-77% before 1990 to 93% in 2000, and then decreased from 2000 because of the decrease in the terrestrial input. In the bay mouth, the percentage of organic carbon from land reached the highest value with 94% in 1994. In the outer bay, the sediment source maintained steady for the past one hundred years.

Grain-size related nitrogen distribution in southern Yellow Sea surface sediments

Forty-eight surface sediments of the southern Yellow Sea are separated into three grain-size fractions. Four forms of extractable nitrogen (nitrogen in ion-exchangeable form (Nie), nitrogen in weak-acid extractable form (Nwa), nitrogen in strong-alkali extractable form (Nsa) and nitrogen in strong-oxidant form (Nso)) are obtained by the sequential extraction. The results show that the contents and the distributions of the extractable nitrogen in the southern Yellow Sea surface sediments are closely related to sediment grain size. The distributions of Nie, Nso and total nitrogen (TN) present positive correlations with fine particles content, while Nwa and Nsa does not have such correlation. The net contents of all the forms of nitrogen increase with sediment grain size finer.

Biogenic silicate accumulation in sediments, Jiaozhou Bay

It has been widely recognized that low silicate content in seawater is a major limiting factor to phytoplankton primary production in Jiaozhou Bay. However the reason of Si-limitation remains poorly understood. In the present study we measured the biogenic silicate content and discussed the accumulation of silicate in Jiaozhou Bay sediment. The results show that the biogenic silica content in the sediment of the Jiaozhou Bay is obviously much higher than those in the Yellow Sea and the Bohai Sea. The Bsi:TN ratios and BSi:16P ratios in the sediment are>1 and the OC:BSi ratio in sediment is lower than these of Redfield ratio (106∶16), indicating that the decomposition rate of OC is much higher than that for BSi in similar conditions. Therefore, the majority of the biogenic silicate was buried and thus did not participate in silicate recycling. Silicate accumulation in sediment may explain why Si limits the phytoplankton growth in the Jiaozhou Bay. Comparing the flux of biogenic silicate from sediments with primary production rate, it can be concluded that only 15.5% of biogenic silicate is hydrolyzed during the journey from surface to bottom in seawater, thus approximate 84.5% of biogenic silicate could reach the bottom. The silicate releasing rate from the sediment to seawater is considerably lower than that of sedimentation of biogenic silicate, indicating silicate accumulation in sediment too. In a word, the silicate accumulation in sediment is the key reason of silicate limiting to phytoplankton growth in Jiaozhou Bay.