摘要
In some studies, the researchers pretreated and measured organic carbon, nitrogen and their isotopes（δ^（13）C and δ^（15）N） of marine sediment together, to save costs and resources of analysis. However, the procedure of acidification to remove inorganic carbon for analysing δ^（13）C can affect the values of nitrogen and δ^（15）N, and the biases vary a lot depending on the CaCO_3 contents of sediments. In this study, the biases of total nitrogen（TN）and δ^（15）N values arising from acidified sediments were compared between the CaCO_3-poor（1%–16%） and CaCO_3-rich（20%–40%） samples. TN and δ^（15）N values were altered during acid treatment（without centrifugation） that possibly led to N-containing compounds volatilization. For CaCO_3-poor samples, acidification led to a range of 0%–40% TN losses and 0‰–2‰ shift in δ^（15）N values; and 10%–60% TN losses and 1‰–14‰ shift in δ^（15）N values for CaCO_3-rich samples. The biases from most samples exceeded the precision of the instrument（0.002% for TN and 0.08‰ for δ^（15）N）, and high biases could mislead our judgment for the environmental implication of the data. Thus,avoiding co-analysis of organic carbon, nitrogen and their isotopes（δ^（13）C and δ^（15）N） in sediments, even for CaCO_3-poor marine sediments, is necessary.
In some studies, the researchers pretreated and measured organic carbon, nitrogen and their isotopes（δ^（13）C and δ^（15）N） of marine sediment together, to save costs and resources of analysis. However, the procedure of acidification to remove inorganic carbon for analysing δ^（13）C can affect the values of nitrogen and δ^（15）N, and the biases vary a lot depending on the CaCO_3 contents of sediments. In this study, the biases of total nitrogen（TN）and δ^（15）N values arising from acidified sediments were compared between the CaCO_3-poor（1%–16%） and CaCO_3-rich（20%–40%） samples. TN and δ^（15）N values were altered during acid treatment（without centrifugation） that possibly led to N-containing compounds volatilization. For CaCO_3-poor samples, acidification led to a range of 0%–40% TN losses and 0‰–2‰ shift in δ^（15）N values; and 10%–60% TN losses and 1‰–14‰ shift in δ^（15）N values for CaCO_3-rich samples. The biases from most samples exceeded the precision of the instrument（0.002% for TN and 0.08‰ for δ^（15）N）, and high biases could mislead our judgment for the environmental implication of the data. Thus,avoiding co-analysis of organic carbon, nitrogen and their isotopes（δ^（13）C and δ^（15）N） in sediments, even for CaCO_3-poor marine sediments, is necessary.
基金
The National Natural Science Foundation of China under contract No.41376121
the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences under contract No.XDA11020405
the Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province under contract No.JQ201414
the Program of Advanced Talents of The Guizhou University of Finance and Economics,2016
