A 400-year record of black carbon flux in the Xisha archipelago, South China Sea and its implication

We reconstructed the first long-term (∼400 years) records of black carbon (BC) deposition flux from three ornithogenic sediment profiles, which were collected from three remote, isolated islets of the Xisha archipelago, South China Sea. The significant correlations between black carbon, organic matter and excess ²¹⁰Pb suggested that black carbon was mainly derived from atmospheric deposition, and further enriched by plant-derived organic matter in sediments. During the past 400 years, the BC flux remained relatively low before the onset of 20th century; it started to increase from approximately 1900 AD, and peaked around the 1970s. In the recent 30 years, the BC flux seemed to display decreasing trend, very likely due to the change of energy structure and development of pollution control techniques. In comparison with marginal sea regions that are greatly impacted by anthropogenic activities, these pristine Xisha islands were not significantly influenced by black carbon of anthropogenic origin.