Abstract
Biogenic silica (BSi) in marine sediments is an important indicator of siliceous organism distributions and paleoproductivities. Organisms that have BSi skeletons include diatoms, silicoflagellates, radiolarians and sponges. This study presents, for the first time, the distribution of biogenic siliceous fragments in shallow water sediments around Taiwan and the Sunda Shelf, which belong to this rarely studied region of the South China Sea (SCS). Thirty-one surface sediment samples were collected from intertidal to depths of 1,100 m. Only sponge spicules were found in this study and the abundance varied in the range of 3–7,910 n g−1 sediment. Combining previous studies with ours, from shallow to deep, it was observed that BSi composition in the surface sediment of this area changed from sponge spicules in the Sunda Shelf, followed by sponge spicules and radiolarians in the southwestern SCS, to sponge spicules, radiolarians and diatoms in the southern SCS. Based on this study, the abundance of sponge spicules correlated positively and negatively with water depth and sediment grain size when coral reef sites were excluded. The low spicule abundance in shallow waters may have resulted from local current conditions and the dilution effect through riverine input of terrestrial sediment. Other possible explanations for the varying spicule abundance among sites are the difference in local fauna, such as coral reefs which usually have high diversity and abundance of sponges. The findings provide additional information on the process of recent BSi deposition which may help future studies in sedimentology, paleogeography and paleoenvironments.
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Acknowledgments
We gratefully acknowledge the anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments, which have substantially improved the manuscript. We thank Drs. S.L. Wang, S. Lin and the members of cruise OR1-802, OR1-829, OR1-837, and OR1-861 for sample collection. We also thank Ms. B.J. Wang and H.J. Lui for their constructive help in MS preparation. This study was supported by the National Science Council, Republic of China (NSC 97-2621-M-110-002; NSC 97-2621-M-110-001; NSC 98-2621-M-110-006), the Asia–Pacific Ocean Research Center, and the Center for Emerging Contaminants Research, National Sun Yat-sen University, funded by the Ministry of Education, Taiwan. Mr. Ted Knoy is appreciated for his editorial assistance.
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Chou, Y., Lou, J.Y., Chen, CT.A. et al. Spatial distribution of sponge spicules in sediments around Taiwan and the Sunda Shelf. J Oceanogr 68, 905–912 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10872-012-0143-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10872-012-0143-7