Biogeochemical characteristics of nitrogen and phosphorus in Jiaozhou Bay sediments

Abstract

Sediment samples were cored from 3 locations representing the inner bay, the outer bay and the bay mouth of Jiaozhou Bay in September 2003 to study the source and biogeochemical characteristics of nitrogen and phosphorus in the bay. The content and vertical distributions of total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorus (TP), organic nitrogen (ON), organic phosphorus (OP), inorganic nitrogen (IN), inorganic phosphorus (IP), the ratio of organic carbon and total nitrogen (OC/TN), and the ratio of total nitrogen and total phosphorus (TN/TP) in the sediments were analyzed. The results show that both TN and TP in surface sediments decrease from the inner bay to the outer bay. In general, ON occupies 50%–70% of TN and IP accounts for more than 60% of TP. In ratio of OC:TN, the nitrogen accumulated in the sediments from the inner bay and the bay mouth came mainly from terrestrial sources, and the portion of autogenetic nitrogen was 28.9% and 13.1%, respectively. However, in the outer bay, nitrogen was mainly autogenetic, accounting for 62.1% of TN, whereas phosphorus was mainly land-derived. The sedimentation fluxes of nitrogen and phosphorus varied spatially. The overall diagenesis rate of nitrogen was higher than that of phosphorus. Specifically, the diagenesis rate of OP was higher than that of IP. However, the diagenesis rate of ON was not always higher than that of IN. In species, the diagenesis rate of IN is sometimes much higher than that of the OC. In various environments, the diagenesis rate is, to some degree, affected by OC, pH, Eh, and Es.