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Some characteristic features of the vertical profile of organic matter in recent sediment from the Bering Sea

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Abstract

Sedimentary samples were collected from a site (57°02.9′N, 176°57.4′W: 3,650 m) in the Aleutian Basin of the Bering Sea and analyzed for organic carbon, total nitrogen and various organic materials. Organic carbon and total nitrogen were measured in the range of 0.1–1.9% and 0.01–0.2% of the dry weight of the sediment, these values tended to decrease with depth, but considerably lower values were obtained in the volcanogenic sediment layers. Carbohydrate, amino acid and protein and lipid carbons accounted for 40% of the total organic carbon on the surface of the sediment, and this value tended to decrease with depth to 20% at 10m depth from the top of the core sample. The carbon to nitrogen (C/N) ratios ranged from 6.3 to 9.0. Vertical change in the values of the ratios can be understood in terms of a higher decay rate of amino acids and proteins.

Radiocarbon age determinations on five sedimentary samples yielded sedimentation rates ranging from 37 to 90cm/1,000y.

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  1. Water Research Institute, Nagoya University, Chikusa-ku, 464, Nagoya, Japan

    Eiichiro Tanoue & Nobuhiko Handa

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  1. Eiichiro Tanoue
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  2. Nobuhiko Handa
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Tanoue, E., Handa, N. Some characteristic features of the vertical profile of organic matter in recent sediment from the Bering Sea. Journal of the Oceanographical Society of Japan 36, 1–14 (1980). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02209349

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