Distribution of tetraether lipids in surface sediments of the northern South China Sea:Implications for TEX_(86) proxies

Archaea have unique glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraether（GDGT） lipids that can be used to develop paleotemperature proxies such as TEX86.This research is to validate proposed GDGT-proxies for paleotemperature determination in the South China Sea（SCS）.Samples were collected from core-top sediments （0-5 cm） in the northern SCS.Total lipids were extracted to obtain core GDGTs,which were identified and quantified using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry（LC-MS）.The abundance of isoprenoidal GDGTs（/GDGTs） ranged from 271.5 ng/g dry sediment to 1266.3 ng/g dry sediment,whereas the branched GDGTs（bGDGTs）,supposedly derived from terrestrial sources,ranged from 22.2 ng/g dry sediment to 56.7 ng/g dry sediment.The TEX_（86）-derived sea surface temperatures ranged from 20.9℃in the coast（water depth 〈 160 m） to 27.9℃offshore（water depth 〉 1000 m）.TEX86-derived temperatures near shore（〈 160 m water depth） averaged 23.1±2.5℃（n =4）,which were close to the satellite-derived winter mean sea surface temperature（average 22.6±1.0℃,n = 4）;whereas the TEX_（86）-derived temperatures offshore averaged 27.4±0.3℃（n = 7） and were consistent with the satellite mean annual sea surface temperature（average 26.8±0.4℃,n = 7）.These results suggest that TEX_（86） may record the sea surface mean annual temperature in the open ocean,while it likely records winter sea surface temperature in the shallower water.

Carbon pools and fluxes in the China Seas and adjacent oceans

The China Seas include the South China Sea, East China Sea, Yellow Sea, and Bohai Sea. Located off the Northwestern Pacific margin, covering 4700000 km^2 from tropical to northern temperate zones, and including a variety of continental margins/basins and depths, the China Seas provide typical cases for carbon budget studies. The South China Sea being a deep basin and part of the Western Pacific Warm Pool is characterized by oceanic features; the East China Sea with a wide continental shelf, enormous terrestrial discharges and open margins to the West Pacific, is featured by strong cross-shelf materials transport; the Yellow Sea is featured by the confluence of cold and warm waters; and the Bohai Sea is a shallow semiclosed gulf with strong impacts of human activities. Three large rivers, the Yangtze River, Yellow River, and Pearl River, flow into the East China Sea, the Bohai Sea, and the South China Sea, respectively. The Kuroshio Current at the outer margin of the Chinese continental shelf is one of the two major western boundary currents of the world oceans and its strength and position directly affect the regional climate of China. These characteristics make the China Seas a typical case of marginal seas to study carbon storage and fluxes. This paper systematically analyzes the literature data on the carbon pools and fluxes of the Bohai Sea,Yellow Sea, East China Sea, and South China Sea, including different interfaces(land-sea, sea-air, sediment-water, and marginal sea-open ocean) and different ecosystems(mangroves, wetland, seagrass beds, macroalgae mariculture, coral reefs, euphotic zones, and water column). Among the four seas, the Bohai Sea and South China Sea are acting as CO_2 sources, releasing about0.22 and 13.86–33.60 Tg C yr^(-1) into the atmosphere, respectively, whereas the Yellow Sea and East China Sea are acting as carbon sinks, absorbing about 1.15 and 6.92–23.30 Tg C yr^(-1) of atmospheric CO_2, respectively. Overall, if only the CO_2 exchange at the sea-air interface is considered, the Chinese marginal seas appear to be a source of atmospheric CO_2, with a net release of 6.01–9.33 Tg C yr^(-1), mainly from the inputs of rivers and adjacent oceans. The riverine dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) input into the Bohai Sea and Yellow Sea, East China Sea, and South China Sea are 5.04, 14.60, and 40.14 Tg C yr^(-1),respectively. The DIC input from adjacent oceans is as high as 144.81 Tg C yr^(-1), significantly exceeding the carbon released from the seas to the atmosphere. In terms of output, the depositional fluxes of organic carbon in the Bohai Sea, Yellow Sea, East China Sea, and South China Sea are 2.00, 3.60, 7.40, and 5.92 Tg C yr^(-1), respectively. The fluxes of organic carbon from the East China Sea and South China Sea to the adjacent oceans are 15.25–36.70 and 43.93 Tg C yr^(-1), respectively. The annual carbon storage of mangroves, wetlands, and seagrass in Chinese coastal waters is 0.36–1.75 Tg C yr^(-1), with a dissolved organic carbon(DOC) output from seagrass beds of up to 0.59 Tg C yr^(-1). Removable organic carbon flux by Chinese macroalgae mariculture account for 0.68 Tg C yr^(-1) and the associated POC depositional and DOC releasing fluxes are 0.14 and 0.82 Tg C yr^(-1), respectively. Thus, in total, the annual output of organic carbon, which is mainly DOC, in the China Seas is 81.72–104.56 Tg C yr^(-1). The DOC efflux from the East China Sea to the adjacent oceans is 15.00–35.00 Tg C yr^(-1). The DOC efflux from the South China Sea is 31.39 Tg C yr^(-1). Although the marginal China Seas seem to be a source of atmospheric CO_2 based on the CO_2 flux at the sea-air interface, the combined effects of the riverine input in the area, oceanic input, depositional export,and microbial carbon pump(DOC conversion and output) indicate that the China Seas represent an important carbon storage area.

Climate tipping-point potential and paradoxical production of methane in a changing ocean

The global warming potential of methane(CH_4) is about 30 times stronger than that of carbon dioxide(CO2) over a century timescale. Methane emission is hypothesized to have contributed to global climate change events and mass extinctions during Earth's history. Therefore, the study of CH_4 production processes is critically important to the understanding of global climate change. It has been a dogma that biogenic CH_4 detectable in the oceans originates exclusively from the anaerobic metabolic activity of methanogenic archaea in hypoxic and anoxic environments, despite reports that many oxic surface and near-surface waters of the world's oceans are CH_4-supersaturated, thereby rendering net sea-to-air emissions of CH_4. The phenomenon of CH_4 production in oxic marine waters is referred to as the "ocean methane paradox". Although still not totally resolved, recent studies have generated several hypotheses regarding the sources of CH_4 production in oxic seawater. This review will summarize our current understanding of the importance of CH_4 in the global climate and analyze the biological processes and their underpinning mechanisms that lead to the production of CH_4 in oxic seawater environments. We will also tentatively explore the relationships of these microbial metabolic processes with global changes in climate and environment.