Sedimentary phosphorus species and sedimentation flux in the East China Sea

Core sediment samples were collected from the middle shelf of the East China Sea (ECS) to study the phosphorus forms, P accumulation rate (PAR), P burial efficiency and the burial flux in the ECS. The sediment samples were sequentially extracted and directly extracted to analyze different forms of sedimentary P: lossely sorbed P and iron-bound P (PCDB); inorganic P associated with francolite (carbonate fluorapatite, CFA), biogenic hydroxyapatite, smecite, and CaCO3 (PCFA); detrital P (PDetrital); organic P (POrganic); and total P. In addition, the Fe contents in the citrate-dithionite-bicarbonate (CDB) extracted solution were also measured. tal concentrations of P in the surface sediments in the study area ranged from 13.5 to 22.3 μmol g−1. Inorganic P was the major form and accounted for 72–93% of the total P pool. The average percentage of each fraction of P followed the sequence: PDetrital (70%)>POrganic (15.5%)>PCDB (8.4%)>PCFA (5.8%). The distribution pattern of total P in the surface sediment was similar to that of PDetrital and POrganic, but different from that of PCDB and PCFA. The profile variation of POrganic was the most significant among the phosphorus forms at the study stations. The concentrations of PCDB and PCFA showed minor variation with depth. These results may suggest that transformations of POrganic, PCFA and PCDB occurred at the study stations during sedimentary P burial. on the concentrations of total P, PCDB and FeCDB obtained in the present study and the mass accumulation rate (MAR) reported in the literature, the values of the PAR, the P diffusion flux (JPFe) supplied by reducible iron hydroxides and the P burial efficiency were calculated. The calculated results for PAR and JPFe in the study area ranged from 1.02 to 24.23 μmol cm−2 yr−1 and from 0.1 to 2.11 μmol cm−2 yr−1, respectively. The phosphorus burial efficiency (PBE) was approximately 90%. The ECS is a phosphorus sink, and the average annual P burial flux has been reasonably estimated to be in the range of 20–25×109 mol yr−1.