Burial fluxes and source apportionment of carbon in culture areas of Sanggou Bay over the past 200 years

In this study, we assessed the burial fluxes and source appointment of different forms of carbon in core sediments collected from culture areas in the Sanggou Bay, and preliminarily analyzed the reasons for the greater proportion of inorganic carbon burial fluxes （BFTIc）. The average content of total carbon （TC） in the Sanggou Bay was 2.14%. Total organic carbon （TOC） accounted for a small proportion in TC, more than 65% of which derived from terrigenous organic carbon （Ct）, and while the proportion of marine-derived organic carbon （Ca） increased significantly since the beginning of large-scale aquaculture. Total inorganic carbon （TIC） accounted for 60%-75% of TC, an average of which was 60%, with a maximum up to 90% during flourishing periods （1880-1948） of small natural shellfish derived from seashells inorganic carbon （SheU-IC）. The TC burial fluxes ranged from 31 g/（m2.a） to 895 g/（m2.a） with an average of 227 g/（m2.a）, which was dominated by TIC （about 70%）. Shell-IC was the main source of TIC and even TC. As the main food of natural shellfish, biogenic silica （BSi） negatively correlated with BFTIc through affecting shellfish breeding. BFTIc of Sta. S1, influenced greatly by the Yellow Sea Coastal Current, had a certain response to Pacific Decadal Oscillation （PDO） in some specific periods.