Sediment Of Yellow Sea Research Articles

Spatiotemporal distribution of sedimentary chloropigments and organic carbon in a shelf sea ecosystem, with a focus on the cold water mass

The Yellow Sea is one of the most thoroughly studied shelf seas in the northwestern Pacific. However, many aspects of the northern Yellow Sea sediments remain poorly understood. Sedimentary chloropigments and total organic carbon (TOC) are crucial components that indicate benthic primary productivity and ecosystem functioning in the marginal sea system. The present study investigated the temporal and spatial variations of sediment chloroplastic pigments (Chl-a and Pha-a) and TOC contents in relation to seasons and the northern Yellow Sea Cold Water Mass (NYSCWM). Decadal trends were also examined using linear regression on time-series data from 12 cruises conducted over a nine-year period (2006–2014). The correlations between sedimentary Chorophy-a (Chl-a), Pheophorbide-a (Pha-a), TOC, and their ratios with other abiotic and biotic factors were analyzed to detect any effects of the NYSCWM on the spatiotemporal distribution of sediment Chl-a, Pha-a, TOC contents, as well as the ecological relevance of their ratios as indicators of food quality (freshness) in the benthic system. The NYSCWM substantially influences the spatial and seasonal distribution of sedimentary Chl-a, Pha-a, and TOC contents. High values of Pha-a, TOC, and the ratios of Pha-a/(Chl-a + Pha-a) and TOC/Chl-a were often observed in the central region of the NYSCWM, where Chl-a showed clear seasonal fluctuations while Pha-a and TOC remained relatively constant. While sedimentary TOC appears to negatively mirror the spatial pattern of primary productivity in the water column, the spatial pattern of sedimentary Chl-a in relation to NYSCWM is less evident. However, the contents of Pha-a and TOC in the central NYSCWM sediments were higher than those at surrounding NYSCWM stations. Surface sediment Pha-a/(Chl-a + Pha-a) ratio was negatively correlated with meiofauna abundance and biomass and positively correlated with nematode/copepod ratio. This finding indicates that the quality of sediment organic matter is important to meiofauna. Conversely, the lower organic degradation rate at the lower bottom temperature of the NYSCWM may explain the observed higher Pha-a and TOC contents in its central area. Time-series data collected over nine years at the NYSCWM stations showed a decreasing trend for Chl-a, while TOC and the ratio of Pha-a/(Chl-a + Pha-a) exhibited increasing tendencies. This trend may imply a reduced quality of food supply to the benthic food web in the shelf sea system, along with degraded ecosystem functioning and service under the impacts of global change and anthropogenic disturbances.

Pollen evidence of enhanced Yellow River provenance into the South Yellow Sea after the Middle Pleistocene Transition

Quaternary sediment of the South Yellow Sea (SYS) is usually assumed to record climatic changes, tectonic activities and major river evolutions. However, as an important terrigenous indicator, a long sequence of pollen proxy in the SYS lacks for studies of river provenance and climate changes. In this study, we focused on a 150-m pollen record in the SYS that covered most of the Quaternary period over the past 1.8 Ma. The most significant changes of pollen assemblage were caused by river provenance, that high pollen percentages of broadleaved trees such as Castanea/Castanopsis reflect a dominant provenance of the Yangtze River since ca. 1.8 Ma, with a decline trend during the Mid-Pleistocene transition (MPT) mainly between 1.1 and 0.8 Ma. The sharp increase in coniferous pollen, particularly Picea, originated from the Yellow River drainage areas, suggesting a major alteration in terrigenous pollen source from the Yangtze River to the Yellow River at ∼0.8 Ma, which agrees well with the timing of the final integration of the modern Yellow River. The high pollen quantities of Artemisia and Ephedra also shows the enhanced Yellow River provenance where most landscape was covered by semi-arid open vegetation (e.g. steppe). The alternate appearances of marine foraminifera and dinoflagellate cysts, and freshwater wetland plants (Cyperaceae, Poaceae) through the interglacial intervals from MIS 19/21 demonstrate different estuary sedimentary environments and diverse salinity, associated with the sea-level fluctuations. The pollen concentration suggests an increase in terrigenous materials towards the interglacial MIS 11 and the preliminary delta formation of the Yellow River. We propose that the terrigenous input from the Yellow River accelerated after the MPT, and combined effects of tectonic movement drove the evolution of the river delta plains in eastern China. Our data also reveal some secondary periodic changes in evergreen broadleaved forest during the past 1.8 Ma and cold-tolerant coniferous forest since particularly the MPT, which are generally linked with the 400-ka long eccentricity cycle and the variability of monsoon climate.

Long-Chain Alkenones in the South Yellow Sea Sediments and Their Indicative Significance for Haptophytes Species

Long-Chain Alkenones in the South Yellow Sea Sediments and Their Indicative Significance for Haptophytes Species

High-resolution organic and black carbon records in the South Yellow Sea over the last century

The mud depositional area ("mud area") of the South Yellow Sea serves as a prominent carbon sink within the Eastern Continental Shelf of China, offering crucial insights into human activities and climate fluctuations and its relationship with carbon cycle. This study investigates variations in total organic carbon (TOC) and black carbon (BC) concentrations in South Yellow Sea sediments. By combining 210Pb isotope analysis with grain-size profiling, the study distinguishes organic carbon origins, revealing the complex interplay between human activities and environmental shifts since the Industrial Revolution. The reasons for discrepancies between TOC and BC contents are analyzed, yielding the following results: (1) Sediment core QY-2 predominantly contains terrestrial-sourced organic carbon, primarily derived from the Yellow River and the Yangtze River. (2) Temporal fluctuations of BC in core QY-2 show distinct trends, periodic responses to human activities, particularly peaks in 1937 and 1945, linked to large-scale wars in China. (3) Relaxed carbon emission regulations in China, coupled with industrial growth spurred by the “reform and opening up” policy, led to a continuous rise in BC content from the mid-1960s to the 1980s, peaking in 1980. Subsequently, reduced BC values during the 1990s correlated with emission control policies and the shift from highly polluting domestic coal stoves to cleaner alternatives like liquefied petroleum gas or natural gas stoves. (4) BC content was influenced by the East Asian monsoon and Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO), with higher BC accumulation rates occurring in summer and depletion in winter. (5) Interestingly, changes in BC and TOC content exhibited a negative correlation. While grain size and material sources minimally influenced these discrepancies, the primary driver lay in the water's redox environment, impacting other TOC components and thereby causing variations in both TOC and BC content. This study of black carbon sources to sinks in the South Yellow Sea Mud Area holds significant implications for the broader Yellow Sea sedimentary system and provides support for understanding carbon cycle and marine environments.

Anthropocene 129I Record in the Yellow Sea Sediments and Its Indication for River-Delivered Radioactive Pollution to Marginal Seas.

As the number of coastal nuclear facilities rapidly increases and the wastewater from the Fukushima Nuclear Plant has been discharged into the Pacific Ocean, the nuclear environmental safety of China's marginal seas is gaining increased attention along with the heightened potential risk of nuclear accidents. However, insufficient work limits our understanding of the impact of human nuclear activities on the Yellow Sea (YS) and the assessment of their environmental process. This study first reports the 129I and 127I records of posthuman nuclear activities in the two YS sediments. Source identification of anthropogenic 129I reveals that, in addition to the gaseous 129I release and re-emission of oceanic 129I discharged from the European Nuclear Fuel Reprocessing Plants (NFRPs), the Chinese nuclear weapons testing fallout along with the global fallout is an additional 129I input for the continental shelf of the YS. The 129I/127I atomic ratios in the North YS (NYS) sediment are significantly higher than those in the other adjacent coastal areas, attributed to the significant riverine input of particulate 129I by the Yellow River. Furthermore, we found a remarkable 129I latitudinal disparity in the sediments than those in the seawaters in the various China seas, revealing that sediments in China's marginal seas already received a huge anthropogenic 129I from terrigenous sources via rivers and thus became a significant sink of anthropogenic 129I. This study broadens an insight into the potential impacts of terrigenous anthropogenic pollution on the Chinese coastal marine radioactive ecosystem.

Provenance Evolution and Its Response to Sea Level Change in the South Yellow Sea since 1.0 Ma

The sediments provenance of the South Yellow Sea is controlled by many factors such as sea level change, ocean circulation, and neotectonic movement. The short time scale sediments provenance changes in this region since the Holocene have been revealed well, and a unified understanding has been formed that the central muddy area in the South Yellow Sea is a mixed area of the Yellow River sediments and the Yangtze River sediments. However, the contribution of different rivers to the sediments of the South Yellow Sea since late Quaternary is still ambiguous. Through comparative analysis of several boreholes with precise annual data constraints in the central mud area, the process of sediments provenance change at different periods since the late Early Pleistocene (1.0 Ma) was reconstructed, and the coupling mechanism of sediments provenance change and sea level change was established. It is found that during the period from 1.0 to 0.88 Ma, the seawater entered the South Yellow Sea along the Yellow Sea trough from the southeast to north as a channel, and there were different phenomena at the same time in different regions. Since 0.88 Ma, the sea water has been advancing from east to west. In addition, the sediments in the western of Jeju Island are mainly from China, and the sediments in the eastern are mainly from the Korean Peninsula, which roughly coincides with the boundary between the silty area and the sandy area on the eastern of the South Yellow Sea. In the surface sediments, the boundary line between the Yellow River sediments and the Yangtze River sediments is approximately 33.4° N.

Tropicibacter oceani sp. nov., a novel sulfur-metabolizing bacteria isolated from the intertidal zone sediment of Chinese Yellow Sea.

In this study, we reported a Gram-stain-negative, rod-shaped, atrichous, and aerobic bacterial strain named YMD87T, which was isolated from the intertidal zone sediment of Chinese Yellow Sea. Growth of strain YMD87T occurred at 10.0-40.0°C (optimum, 25-30°C), pH 4.0-12.0 (optimum, 8.0) and with 0-6.0% (w/v) NaCl (optimum, 0.0-2.0%). Phylogenetic tree analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequence indicated that strain YMD87T belonged to the genus Tropicibacter and was closely related to Tropicibacter alexandrii LMIT003T (97.2% sequence similarity). Genomic analysis indicated that strain YMD87T contains a circular chromosome of 3,932,460bp with G + C content of 63.8% and three circular plasmids of 116,492bp, 49,209bp and 49,673bp, with G + C content of 64.3%. Genomic functional analysis revealed that strain YMD87T is potential a novel sulfur-metabolizing bacteria. The predominant respiratory quinone of YMD87T was ubiquinone-10 (Q-10). The major polar lipids of YMD87T contained phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, five unidentified lipids, five unidentified phospholipids, phosphatidylcholine, unidentified glycolipid and five unidentified aminolipids. The major fatty acids of strain YMD87T contained C12:1 3-OH, C16:0, and summed feature 8 (C18:1 ω7c or/and C18:1 ω6c). Phylogenetic, physiological, biochemical and morphological analyses suggested that strain YMD87T represents a novel species of the genus Tropicibacter, and the name Tropicibacter oceani sp. nov is proposed. The type strain is YMD87T (= MCCC 1K08473T = KCTC 92856T).

Unveiling the impact and mechanisms of Cd-driven ecological assembly and coexistence of bacterial communities in coastal sediments of Yellow Sea

The microbial community assembly processes and underlying mechanisms in response to heavy metal accumulation in coastal sediments remain underexplored. In this study, the heavy metal concentration in samples were found below the marine sediment quality standards. Through partial Mantel tests and linear regression analysis, Cd was identified as the major influencing factor, displaying strongest correlation with the bacterial community in the sediments. The class Desulfuromonadia was identified as a biomarker which showed enrichment in the sediments with high Cd content. Additionally, the results of null model and the neutral community model demonstrated the prominent role of stochastic processes in the assembly of bacterial community. However, with the increase in Cd concentration, the influence of selection processes intensified, resulting in a decline in species migration rate and subsequent reduction in ecological niche width. Furthermore, the intensified competition and an increase in keystone species among bacterial populations further enhanced the stability of the microbial co-occurrence network in response to high Cd concentration. This study offers an insight into the effects of heavy metal on microbial assembly and coexistence, which are conducive to marine ecosystem management and conservation.

Microbial Community Response to Photoelectrons and Regulation on Dolomite Precipitation in Marine Sediments of Yellow Sea

Dolomite exhibits a wide distribution in geological strata. The metabolic activities of microorganisms in marine sediments play a crucial role in the formation of dolomite. Semiconducting minerals, such as hematite, goethite, and rutile, generate photoelectrons when exposed to sunlight, which can impact the community structure and metabolic activities of microorganisms. In this study, a simulated photoelectron system was conducted to investigate the response of the microbial community, as well as the regulation of sulfate reduction, to photoelectrons using high-throughput sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene. The regulatory effect of semiconducting mineral photoelectrons on the induction of carbonate precipitation by sulfate-reducing bacteria was explored. X-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy were used to characterize carbonate precipitation. During cultivation, the pH values of the system increased from 8.0 to approximately 8.5 and the rate of sulfate reduction was significantly enhanced under the influence of simulated photoelectrons. The alpha diversity of the microbial community decreased, and the semiconducting mineral photoelectronic system had a promoting effect on the enrichment of sulfate-reducing bacteria, mainly Desulfovibrio. Under the regulation of photoelectrons, sulfate-reducing bacteria can effectively oxidize organic matter and reduce sulfate in the environment, and proto-dolomite can be formed at a low Mg/Ca ratio. This process has important implications for carbon and sulfur element cycling in estuarine and oceanic photic zones, and provides a new explanation for the formation of large amounts of dolomite in geological history.

Characterization of iron, sulfur, and phosphorus diagenesis in muddy sediments of the South Yellow Sea using the diffusive gradients in thin films (DGT) technique

Characterization of iron, sulfur, and phosphorus diagenesis in muddy sediments of the South Yellow Sea using the diffusive gradients in thin films (DGT) technique

Vertical distribution of Fe, P and correlation with organic carbon in coastal sediments of Yellow Sea, Eastern China

The coastal zone is considered as a major carbon pool. Iron minerals and phosphates are vital factors affecting the amounts and occurrence of total organic carbon (TOC) in sediments. However, coupling mechanisms of iron (Fe) and phosphorous (P) in the source-sink transition of TOC in coastal sediments is poorly understood. This study characterized the distribution of Fe, P and TOC contents of three independent 170 cm sediment cores sampled from a coastal aquaculture area in the eastern Jiangsu Province, and quantified the correlations among Fe, P, median grain diameter (Dx(50)), and TOC. The results showed total phosphorus (TP) content ranges in a scope of 337.4-578.0 mg/kg, and many depths recorded moderate P eutrophication. Inorganic phosphorus (DA + IP) and biogenic apatite were the primary components of TP, accounting for 25.19–55.00 and 26.71–49.62%, respectively. The Fe contents varied from 987.9 mg/kg to 2900.7 mg/kg, in which oxidized iron (Fe ox ) accounted for about 62.2–79.4%. In the vertical profile, the TOC was positively correlated with the contents of low-crystallinity Fe-bearing carbonates (Fe carb ), high crystallinity pyrite (Fe Py ), iron-bound phosphorus (P CDB ), manganeses (Mn), and nitrogen (N), while it was negatively correlated with DA + IP, organic phosphorus (OP), and Dx(50). Based on the the partial least squares (PLS) model, we proposed that the higher Fe Py , Mn, magnetite (Fe Mag ), Fe carb , P CDB , amorphous exchangeable Fe (Ex-Fe), and authigenic apatite phosphorus (Bio-P) in sediments represent the high capacity for TOC sink, whereas, higher DA + IP, and OP indicate a TOC conversion to the source. The non-siginificat indication of Fe ox on TOC source-sink is due to its surplus and strong reactivity relative to TOC content. These revealed correlations provide a theoretical reference for understanding and regulating the burial rate and storage of TOC by changing the input of Fe minerals and P components into coastal sediments.

Differences in the methanogen community between the nearshore and offshore sediments of the South Yellow Sea.

The differences in methanogen abundance and community composition were investigated between nearshore and offshore sediments in the South Yellow Sea (SYS). Shannon, Simpson, and Chao1 indices revealed a higher diversity of methanogens in the nearshore sediments than in the offshore sediments. The Mann-Whitney U test demonstrated that the relative abundance of Methanococcoides was significantly higher in the offshore sediments, while the relative abundances of Methanogenium, Methanosarcina, Methanosaeta, Methanolinea, and Methanomassiliicoccus were significantly higher in the nearshore sediments (P < 0.05). The abundance of the mcrA gene in the nearshore sediments was significantly higher than that in the offshore sediments. Furthermore, a similar vertical distribution of the methanogen and sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) abundances was observed in the SYS sediments, implying there is potential cooperation between these two functional microbes in this environment. Finally, total organic carbon (TOC) was significantly correlated with methanogen community composition.

Organic carbon mineralization pathways in the muddy sediments of the South Yellow Sea: Insights from steady-state modeling of porewater

In marine sediments, microbial mineralization of organic carbon (OC) proceeds through a cascade of pathways using different electron acceptors. Rates and relative importance of individual pathways can provide quantitative constraints on biogeochemical cycling of a number of elements, such as carbon, nitrogen, sulfur, iron, and manganese. However, such information is hitherto very scarce in the China marginal seas. To fill the gap, a multicomponent-coupled reaction-transport model CANDI was applied to quantify the rates and relative contributions of individual pathways of OC mineralization at three sites in the South Yellow Sea (SYS) sediments, based on which OC budgets were constructed. Model results at steady state generally well-reproduced the profiles of measured porewater solutes. The fast degrading OC pools G1 become exhausted over the upper 4 cm at the studied sites with the degradation rate constants k1 ranging between 0.6 and 1.65 yr−1, while the slow degrading OC pool G2 remains almost undegradable on the timescales of the studied depth (∼25 cm) due to the low degradation rate constants k2 (10−5‒10−4 yr−1) The depth-integrated rates of OC mineralization at the studied sites are in the range of 5.1–18.3 mmol C m−2 d−1, and aerobic respiration stands out as the dominant pathway, with its average contribution of 62%, followed by sulfate reduction (22.6%), dissimilatory manganese/iron reduction (8.4%), and denitrification (6.1%). Methanogenesis is a negligible process of OC mineralization within the studied depths. The contributions of aerobic respiration in the SYS sediments are much higher than the global average for marginal seas, but the contributions of sulfate reduction and iron dissimilatory reduction are much lower than their global averages, which could be ascribed to the low availability of degradable OC for anaerobic respiration. Budget of OC indicates that the mineralization and burial of OC in the muddy sediments account for 7.3 and 1.7%, respectively, of the total OC supplied to the sea, with the net OC accumulation efficiency of ∼19%.

Heavy metals in sediments of Yellow Sea and East China Sea: Chemical speciation, distribution, influence factor, and contamination

Metal species and the degree of environmental pollution are related to the hydrogen sulfide (H2S), an important product of early diagenesis that can react with metals to form stable compounds. To investigate the effects of H2S to metals and evaluate metal environment effect in the sediments of the East China Sea (ECS) and Yellow Sea (YS), geochemical characteristic and spatial distribution of nine heavy metals and H2S profile were studied. Higher H2S content and lower metal content was observed in the sediments 10 cm in depth in the North Yellow Sea and the west coast of South Korea. The pollution load index (Ipl) indicates that the southern coast of Shandong Peninsula underwent moderate pollution (Ipl=1) of heavy metals and no heavy metal pollution appeared in other areas (Ipl < 1). To some extents, the ecological risk of Cd and As enrichment was moderately severe in all stations. The chance of heavy metal combination to be toxic in ECS and YS during summer was 21%. In addition, correlation between H2S content and metals in both solid and porewater phases was obvious, corroborating important effect of H2S on metal distribution. Moreover, H2S could affect the spatial distributions of heavy metals in porewater directly and be indicative of potential biological effects of combined toxicant groups in the study region.

Characteristics of shear waves in shallow seafloor sediment in the Middle Southern Yellow Sea

The shear wave characteristics of shallow seafloor sediment are vital to marine acoustic study and ocean engineering exploration. We analyzed the shear wave speed and the physical properties of the southern Yellow Sea sediment based on the Grain-Shearing (GS) model. The results show that: (1) The shear wave speed of the high-porosity sediment is lower than that of the low-porosity sediment; (2) The shear wave speed of the fine-grained sediment is lower than that of the coarse-grained sediment; (3) The burial depth of the sediment has a significant influence on the shear wave speed of the seafloor sediment. The GS model agrees well with the measurement data from the southern Yellow Sea. However, the quantitative analysis of the impact of input parameters on the GS model requires further research.

Potential foraminiferal nitrate transport in sediments in contact with oxic overlying water

AbstractSedimentary denitrification accounts for more than half of the global marine fixed nitrogen loss, but this removal is often restricted by nitrate diffusive supply in sediments. The results of this study showed that foraminiferal nitrate transport may supply nitrate below the nitrate penetration depth and promote nitrogen removal in sediments in contact with oxic overlying water. Six dominant foraminiferal species in the Yellow Sea sediments accumulated high concentrations of intracellular nitrate (25–68 mM), which is 1000 times higher than the maximum pore water nitrate concentration. Notably, this is the first time that Protelphidium tuberculatum, the most dominant species at almost all stations, is reported to have elevated intracellular nitrate. P. tuberculatum contributes 45% to 92% of the foraminiferal intracellular nitrate pools and plays an important role in foraminiferal nitrate transport. The potential foraminiferal denitrification rates below the nitrate penetration depth induced by foraminiferal nitrate transport ranged from 4 to 117 μmol N m−2 d−1 and contributed 3% to 81% of sedimentary denitrification. The intensity of foraminiferal nitrate transport showed a negative correlation with the nitrate penetration depth and positively correlated with the chlorophyll a (Chl a) and chloroplastic pigment equivalent concentrations, which indicate that shallower redox depth (nitrate penetration depth) and increased food supply (Chl a, chloroplastic pigment equivalent) may promote foraminiferal nitrate transport. The trophic oxygen model was modified by adding the pore water nitrate to explain foraminiferal nitrate transport in various marine environments, and this modified trophic oxygen model predicts the observed high foraminiferal nitrate transport intensity.

Characterization of microbial communities in sediments of the South Yellow Sea

Illumina sequencing and quantitative PCR (qPCR) based on the 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) gene were conducted to characterize the vertical distribution of bacterial and archaeal communities in the sediments of two sites from the South Yellow Sea. Both bacterial and archaeal communities showed a clear stratified distribution with sediment depth. The microbial communities in the upper layers were distinct from those in the deeper layers; the relative abundances of sequences of Thaumarchaeota, Gammaproteobacteria, and Actinobacteria were higher in the upper than in the deeper sediments, whereas the sequences of Bathyarchaeia, Lokiarchaeota, Euryarchaeota, Chloroflexi, and Deltaproteobacteria were relatively more abundant in the deeper sediments. Sediment depth and total organic carbon (TOC) can significantly influence both the bacterial and archaeal communities. Furthermore, bacterial and archaeal groups potentially involved in nitrogen, sulfur, and methane metabolism were detected in both sites. In our study, both ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (Nitrospira) and ammonia-oxidizing archaea (Candidatus Nitrosopumilus) were responsible for ammonia oxidization. Additionally, sulfur-reducing bacteria SEEP-SRB1 forming consortia with anaerobic methane-oxidizing archaea ANME-2a-2b were capable of anaerobic methane oxidation (AOM) in the 3400-02 sediment samples.

Characterization and ecological function of bacterial communities in seabed sediments of the southwestern Yellow Sea and northwestern East China Sea, Western Pacific

The marine ecosystems of the marginal seas of the Western Pacific region are frequently disturbed by terrigenous materials. It is of great significance to investigate the ecological functioning of these marine areas, which can be well understood by exploring the microbial communities of sediments. However, the geographical distribution, composition, and genetic functions of sedimentary bacterial communities of the Yellow Sea and East China Sea (YEC Seas) are poorly understood. In this work, sediment samples were collected from YEC Sea areas to investigate bacterial communities by high-throughput sequencing. A total of 1960 genera were determined, with Proteobacteria being the dominant phylum (45.03%), followed by Planctomycetes, Bacteroidetes, Acidobacteria, and Chloroflexi. Correlation analysis indicates that the bacterial composition is influenced by environmental factors, including pressure, depth, seawater density, salinity, organic matter content, nutrient, and heavy metal. Approximately 178 metabolism pathways annotated in the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) database were detected in the bacterial communities, including ones for nutrient metabolism (C, 3.04%; S, 0.70%; N, 0.52%; and P, 0.22%) and exogenous pollutant metabolism (e.g., polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), chlorobenzene, and benzoate; up to 4.97%). The results demonstrate that the abundant bacterial communities in the sediments of the YEC Seas are important for maintaining marine ecological functioning, especially for elemental biogeochemical cycling and exogenous pollutant transformation.

In-phase and out-of-phase behavior of the East Asian summer and winter monsoons recorded in the South Yellow Sea sediment over the past 9.5 ka

AbstractThe variability of the East Asian monsoon (EAM) during the Holocene exhibits significant regional response, and its evolution needs further discussion. A well-dated, high-resolution sea-surface temperature record based on long-chain unsaturated alkenones, grain-size data, and clay mineral assemblages from the South Yellow Sea sediment is presented to investigate the sedimentary provenance and reconstruct the EAM over the past 9.5 ka. The results show that the sediments are most likely supplied by the Huanghe. The evolution of the East Asian summer monsoon (EASM) can be divided into three periods: strong and relatively stable conditions during 9.5–7.0 ka, weakened conditions during 7.0–1.5 ka, and strengthened conditions during 1.5–0 ka. The East Asian winter monsoon (EAWM) has experienced five periods: weakened conditions during 9.5–6.7 ka, weak and relatively stable conditions during 6.7–5.6 ka, strong and relatively stable conditions during 5.6–2.6 ka, strengthened conditions during 2.6–1.5 ka, and weak and stable conditions during 1.5–0 ka. Moreover, in-phase correlation was found between the EAWM and EASM at the orbital time scale in response to orbital-driven solar insolation, but out-of-phase correlation at a centennial time scale is predominantly associated with solar activity.

Plutonium in Southern Yellow Sea sediments and its implications for the quantification of oceanic-derived mercury and zinc

The spatial distributions of mercury (Hg) and zinc (Zn) concentration and the isotopic composition of plutonium (Pu) were investigated in surface sediments and sediment cores collected from the Southern Yellow Sea (SYS) during May 2014. The variation of the 240Pu/239Pu atom ratio (0.18–0.31) in the surface sediments of the SYS clearly indicated a signal of close-in fallout input from the Pacific Proving Ground (PPG). The buried 239+240Pu in the sediment of the SYS was estimated to be (4.7 ± 0.5) × 1010 Bq y−1 during the period from 2011 to 2014, of which ∼33% (1.5 × 1010 Bq y−1) was derived from the PPG by long-range transport via ocean currents (e.g., the North Equatorial Current and Kuroshio Current). The concentrations of Hg and Zn varied from 0.003 to 0.067 mg kg−1 and from 43.9 to 137 mg kg−1, respectively, and exhibited positive correlations with the 239+240Pu activity both in the surface sediments (0–1 cm) and upper layers (7 cm) of the sediment cores. Therefore, by using Pu as a tracer, we estimated that the oceanic input contributed 2.0 tons y−1 of Hg and 1.0 × 103 tons y−1 of Zn to the SYS sediments between 2011 and 2014, which accounted for 33% and 3% of total buried Hg and Zn, respectively. These findings indicate that environmental pollution control should also consider the oceanic contribution of some pollutants. The results of the present work help to elucidate the biogeochemical cycling of trace metals in marginal seas, and are helpful for managing environmental pollution in marine environments.