Abstract
Large areas of muddy sediments on the coastal shelves of China provide important samples for studying climate and ecological changes. Analysis of a large number of such samples, which is essential for systematic study on environmental information recorded in mud areas because of complicated sedimentary environment and variable sedimentary rate, requires a fast and economical method. In this study, we investigated the potential of X-ray fluorescence core scanner (XRFS), a fast analytical instrument for measuring the elemental concentrations of muddy sediments, and observed a significant correlation between the element concentrations of muddy sediments determined by regular X-ray fluorescence spectrometer (XRF) and XRFS, respectively. The correlations are mainly determined by excitation energy of elements, but also influenced by solubility of element ions. Furthermore, we found a striking link between Al concentrations and marine-originated organic carbon (MOC), a proxy of marine primary productivity. This indicates that MOC is partly controlled by sedimentary characteristics. Therefore, XRFS method has a good potential in fast analysis of a large number of muddy sediment samples, and it can also be used to calibrate MOC in ecological study of coastal seas.
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