Sources and preservation of sedimentary organic matter in the Southern Bohai Sea and the Yellow Sea: evidence from lipid biomarkers

Tian Lin; Lifang Wang; Yingjun Chen; Chongguo Tian; Xiaohui Pan; Jianhui Tang; Jun Li

doi:10.1016/j.marpolbul.2014.07.017

Sources and preservation of sedimentary organic matter in the Southern Bohai Sea and the Yellow Sea: evidence from lipid biomarkers

Mar Pollut Bull. 2014 Sep 15;86(1-2):210-218. doi: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2014.07.017. Epub 2014 Aug 15.

Authors

Tian Lin¹, Lifang Wang², Yingjun Chen³, Chongguo Tian⁴, Xiaohui Pan⁴, Jianhui Tang⁴, Jun Li⁵

Affiliations

¹ Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Coastal Environmental Processes, Yantai Institute of Coastal Zone Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Yantai, Shandong 264003, China; State Key Laboratory of Environmental Geochemistry, Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guiyang 550002, China.
² State Key Laboratory of Environmental Geochemistry, Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guiyang 550002, China.
³ Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Coastal Environmental Processes, Yantai Institute of Coastal Zone Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Yantai, Shandong 264003, China. Electronic address: yjchen@yic.ac.cn.
⁴ Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Coastal Environmental Processes, Yantai Institute of Coastal Zone Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Yantai, Shandong 264003, China.
⁵ State Key Laboratory of Organic Geochemistry, Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510640, China.

PMID: 25131420
DOI: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2014.07.017

Abstract

The region of Southern Bohai Sea (SBS) and Yellow Sea (YS) represents one of the best examples of large river-dominated ocean margins. The transport and accumulation of sediments played a primary role in distribution of the lipids in the region and could lead to a preferential accumulation of these more refractory land-based lipids. The spatial distribution of total organic carbon (TOC) matched with the lipid distributions over the shelf, and high TOC presented in the central YS, but TOC burial fluxes decreased from 110 ton/km(2)/yr of SBS to 25-32 ton/km(2)/yr of YS. Good correlations were observed between terrestrial n-alkanes and TOC in the sediments of SBS and northern YS, but they were poor for southern YS, meanwhile higher ratios of nC27+nC29+nC31/nC15+nC17+nC19 (12±6) were observed in SBS, and lower in YS (2.2±1.0), suggesting the Yellow River discharge was an important source of terrestrial organic matter to the shelf.

Keywords: Lipid biomarker; Organic matter; Sediment; Sources and preservation; Southern Bohai Sea and Yellow Sea.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Alkanes / analysis
Biomarkers / analysis*
Carbon / analysis
China
Environmental Monitoring / methods
Environmental Monitoring / statistics & numerical data*
Environmental Pollutants / analysis*
Geography
Geologic Sediments / chemistry*
Lipids / analysis
Oceans and Seas
Rivers / chemistry*

Substances

Alkanes
Biomarkers
Environmental Pollutants
Lipids
Carbon