Nitrogen sources in the South China Sea, as discerned from stable nitrogen isotopic ratios in rivers, sinking particles, and sediments

Stable nitrogen isotopic ratios were measured in sinking particles and surface sediments from the South China Sea (SCS) in order to study recent nitrogen sources and degradation. Average δ¹⁵N values of 16 sediment traps deployed at seven locations in the northern, central and southern SCS were uniformly low, ranging between 2.7 and 4.5‰ with a winter minimum in the northern and central SCS. Enhanced nitrogen contents and δ¹⁵N values were noted in samples affected by swimmers, comprising between 5 and 20% of total nitrogen fluxes. Nitrate sources were subsurface waters from the western Pacific, which were isotopically depleted due to the remineralization of nitrogen from nitrogen fixation in surface waters. Nitrogen fixation in the SCS contributed up to 20% to the settling particles. In the southern SCS, resuspended matter close to the shelf added to the sinking particulates. The long-term trap record from the central SCS revealed decreasing δ¹⁵N values during the 1990s, which correspond with findings from the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre and may be attributable to increased nitrogen fixation due to global warming-related stratification. This trend may be restricted to the 1990s but could also persist due to the projection of more frequent occurrence of El Niño conditions.The δ¹⁵N increase from swimmer-free trap averages of 2.7–3.6‰ to values of 5–6‰ in underlying deep-sea sediments was in the same range as in other deep ocean areas. Similar to results from the northern Indian Ocean, this increase could be related to isotopic enrichment during amino acid degradation. The lowest sedimentary δ¹⁵N values characterize the Pinatubo ash layer deposited off Luzon in an event of mass sedimentation in 1991. The fast deposition of organic matter drawn from the surface waters with the ash in the form of vertical density currents evidently preserved the planktonic δ¹⁵N signal.