Studies on the regional feature of organic carbon in sediments off the Huanghe River Estuary waters

Organic carbon (OC) in definitely small area sediments (according to marine dimension) off the Huanghe River Estuary is investigated in order to evaluate the feature of regional difference of physical and chemical properties in marginal sea sediments. The distributions of OC in sediments with natural grain size and the relationship with the pH, Eh, Es and Fe super(3+)/Fe super(2+) are discussed. In addition, OC decomposition rates in surfacial/subsurfacial sediments are estimated. OC concentrations range from 0.26% to 1.8% (wt) in the study area. Significant differences in OC content and in horizontal distribution as well as various trends in surfacial/subsurfacial sediments exhibit the feature of regional difference remarkably in marginal sea sediments. The complicated distribution of OC in surface sediments is due to the influence of bacterial activity and abundance, bioturbation of benthos and physical disturbance. The OC decomposition rate constant in surfacial/subsurfacial sediments ranges from 0.009 7 to 0.076 a super(-1) and the relatively high values may be mainly related to bacteria that are mainly responsible for OC mineralization; meio-and macrofauna affect OC degradation both directly, through feeding on it, and indirectly through bioturbation and at the same time coarse sediments are also disadvantageous to OC preservation. In almost all the middle and bottom sediments the contents of OC decrease with the increase of deposition depth, which indicates that mineralization of OC in the middle and bottom sediments has occurred via processes like SO super(2) sub(4) super(-) reduction and Fe-oxide reduction.