Leaf wax and Sr‐Nd isotope evidence for high‐latitude dust input to the central South China sea and its implication for fertilization

Yi Yang; James A. Bendle; Richard D. Pancost; Yan Yan; Xiaoyan Ruan; Bridget Warren; Xiaoxia Lü; Xuejie Li; Yongjian Yao; Xianyu Huang; Huan Yang; Shucheng Xie

doi:10.1029/2020gl091853

Leaf wax and Sr‐Nd isotope evidence for high‐latitude dust input to the central South China sea and its implication for fertilization

Yi Yang, James A. Bendle, Richard D. Pancost, Yan Yan, Xiaoyan Ruan, Bridget Warren, Xiaoxia Lü, Xuejie Li, Yongjian Yao, Xianyu Huang, Huan Yang, Shucheng Xie

Earth and Environmental Sciences

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Abstract

Recent time-series from sediment traps show abnormally high chlorophyll-a concentrations and primary productivity in the oligotrophic central South China Sea (SCS), especially during wintertime. Here we present new insights from compound-specific hydrogen isotopic analysis of leaf wax n-alkanes and Sr-Nd isotope compositions extracted from four basin-wide surface sediment transects. We find that the deepest surface sediments in the central basin contain the most depleted n-alkane hydrogen isotopes, suggesting inputs from higher latitude soils in northern China. This is supported by the Sr-Nd isotope compositions of the same surface sediments. We propose that aeolian dust is transported by the winter monsoon and might fertilize the phytoplankton bloom in the central SCS. This process may have been enhanced in ancient times when the winter monsoon was stronger, driving both vertical mixing and dust transport to the central basin.

Original language	English
Article number	e2020GL091853
Number of pages	12
Journal	Geophysical Research Letters
Volume	48
Issue number	11
Early online date	4 Jun 2021
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1029/2020gl091853
Publication status	Published - 16 Jun 2021

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
The authors thank the Editors Dr. Angelicque White, Dr. Sarah Feakins, and two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comment to improve the quality of this manuscript. The work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 41821001 and 41830319), the State Key R&D Program of China (Grant No.2016YFA0601100), the Senior User Project of RV KEXUE (KEXUE2019GZ06), Guangzhou Marine Geological Survey (Grant No. [2015] GZH01‐02‐6), and Ministry of Education through 111 program (Grant No. BP0820004).

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved.

Keywords

South China Sea
Sr-Nd isotopes
aeolian dust
carbon and hydrogen isotopes
leaf wax
n-alkane

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Geophysics
Earth and Planetary Sciences(all)

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10.1029/2020gl091853Licence: None: All rights reserved

YangY2021Leaf
An edited version of this paper was published by AGU. Copyright © 2021 American Geophysical Union. Yang, Y., Bendle, J. A., Pancost, R. D., Yan, Y., Ruan, X., Warren, B., et al. (2021). Leaf wax and Sr-Nd isotope evidence for high-latitude dust input to the central South China Sea and its implication for fertilization. Geophysical Research Letters, 48, e2020GL091853. https://doi.org/10.1029/2020GL091853
Accepted author manuscript, 1.59 MBLicence: None: All rights reserved

Cite this

Yang, Y., Bendle, J. A., Pancost, R. D., Yan, Y., Ruan, X., Warren, B., Lü, X., Li, X., Yao, Y., Huang, X., Yang, H., & Xie, S. (2021). Leaf wax and Sr‐Nd isotope evidence for high‐latitude dust input to the central South China sea and its implication for fertilization. Geophysical Research Letters, 48(11), Article e2020GL091853. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1029/2020gl091853

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abstract = "Recent time-series from sediment traps show abnormally high chlorophyll-a concentrations and primary productivity in the oligotrophic central South China Sea (SCS), especially during wintertime. Here we present new insights from compound-specific hydrogen isotopic analysis of leaf wax n-alkanes and Sr-Nd isotope compositions extracted from four basin-wide surface sediment transects. We find that the deepest surface sediments in the central basin contain the most depleted n-alkane hydrogen isotopes, suggesting inputs from higher latitude soils in northern China. This is supported by the Sr-Nd isotope compositions of the same surface sediments. We propose that aeolian dust is transported by the winter monsoon and might fertilize the phytoplankton bloom in the central SCS. This process may have been enhanced in ancient times when the winter monsoon was stronger, driving both vertical mixing and dust transport to the central basin.",

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note = "Funding Information: The authors thank the Editors Dr. Angelicque White, Dr. Sarah Feakins, and two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comment to improve the quality of this manuscript. The work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 41821001 and 41830319), the State Key R&D Program of China (Grant No.2016YFA0601100), the Senior User Project of RV KEXUE (KEXUE2019GZ06), Guangzhou Marine Geological Survey (Grant No. [2015] GZH01‐02‐6), and Ministry of Education through 111 program (Grant No. BP0820004). Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2021. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved.",

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AU - Yang, Yi

AU - Bendle, James A.

AU - Pancost, Richard D.

AU - Yan, Yan

AU - Ruan, Xiaoyan

AU - Warren, Bridget

AU - Lü, Xiaoxia

AU - Li, Xuejie

AU - Yao, Yongjian

AU - Huang, Xianyu

AU - Yang, Huan

AU - Xie, Shucheng

N1 - Funding Information: The authors thank the Editors Dr. Angelicque White, Dr. Sarah Feakins, and two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comment to improve the quality of this manuscript. The work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 41821001 and 41830319), the State Key R&D Program of China (Grant No.2016YFA0601100), the Senior User Project of RV KEXUE (KEXUE2019GZ06), Guangzhou Marine Geological Survey (Grant No. [2015] GZH01‐02‐6), and Ministry of Education through 111 program (Grant No. BP0820004). Publisher Copyright: © 2021. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved.

PY - 2021/6/16

Y1 - 2021/6/16

N2 - Recent time-series from sediment traps show abnormally high chlorophyll-a concentrations and primary productivity in the oligotrophic central South China Sea (SCS), especially during wintertime. Here we present new insights from compound-specific hydrogen isotopic analysis of leaf wax n-alkanes and Sr-Nd isotope compositions extracted from four basin-wide surface sediment transects. We find that the deepest surface sediments in the central basin contain the most depleted n-alkane hydrogen isotopes, suggesting inputs from higher latitude soils in northern China. This is supported by the Sr-Nd isotope compositions of the same surface sediments. We propose that aeolian dust is transported by the winter monsoon and might fertilize the phytoplankton bloom in the central SCS. This process may have been enhanced in ancient times when the winter monsoon was stronger, driving both vertical mixing and dust transport to the central basin.

AB - Recent time-series from sediment traps show abnormally high chlorophyll-a concentrations and primary productivity in the oligotrophic central South China Sea (SCS), especially during wintertime. Here we present new insights from compound-specific hydrogen isotopic analysis of leaf wax n-alkanes and Sr-Nd isotope compositions extracted from four basin-wide surface sediment transects. We find that the deepest surface sediments in the central basin contain the most depleted n-alkane hydrogen isotopes, suggesting inputs from higher latitude soils in northern China. This is supported by the Sr-Nd isotope compositions of the same surface sediments. We propose that aeolian dust is transported by the winter monsoon and might fertilize the phytoplankton bloom in the central SCS. This process may have been enhanced in ancient times when the winter monsoon was stronger, driving both vertical mixing and dust transport to the central basin.

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KW - Sr-Nd isotopes

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KW - carbon and hydrogen isotopes

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Leaf wax and Sr‐Nd isotope evidence for high‐latitude dust input to the central South China sea and its implication for fertilization

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

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