Distribution and Genesis of Organic Carbon Storage on the Northern Shelf of the South China Sea

Liang Chen, Zhengxin Yin (), Meng Tang, Tuanjie Li and Dong Xu
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Liang Chen: South China Sea Marine Survey and Technology Center, State Oceanic Administration, Guangzhou 510300, China
Zhengxin Yin: South China Sea Marine Survey and Technology Center, State Oceanic Administration, Guangzhou 510300, China
Meng Tang: South China Sea Marine Survey and Technology Center, State Oceanic Administration, Guangzhou 510300, China
Tuanjie Li: South China Sea Bureau of Ministry of Natural Resources, Guangzhou 510300, China
Dong Xu: Second Institute of Oceanography, Ministry of Natural Resources, Hangzhou 310012, China

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 18, 1-15

Abstract: The sediments distributed in the marginal seas of the continental shelf are important burial materials for global organic carbon (OC). There have been many estimates of the global continental shelf OC reserves, but due to the limited acquisition of measured data, the estimated results have great uncertainty. The vast continental shelf in the northern part of the South China Sea (SCS) provides a good place for the storage of OC. Based on a large amount of sediment OC data obtained from the northern coast of the SCS, the OC storage in the surface sediment (0~10 cm) in the study area (approximately 8.63 × 10 4 km 2 ) was accurately calculated as 51 Tg. The study area covers different regions, such as estuaries, open seas, strait areas and upwelling development areas, and the OC content of each area is quite different. According to provenance analysis, the source of OC in sediments is mainly from the input of Pearl River runoff. The OC content is significantly higher and less affected by sediment particle size in the Pearl River Estuary and the surrounding areas; meanwhile, the OC content gradually decreases with the distance from the Pearl River Estuary. Far from the western Pearl River Estuary, the sediment OC content is mainly controlled by the particle size of the sediments and is significantly correlated with silt and clay content. The deposition rate is also an important factor affecting the burial of OC, for the high deposition rates correspond to the high levels of OC in the nearshore estuarine areas, as well as the low deposition rate region having low OC content in the sediments even though it has a high productivity of OC, such in as the upwelling sea area on the eastern side of Hainan.

Keywords: sediment; organic carbon storage; particle size; the northern South China Sea (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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