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Biomarker records of phytoplankton productivity and community structure changes during the last 14000 years in the mud area southwest off Cheju Island, East China Sea

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Abstract

The ecological environment in the East China Sea (ECS) and the Yellow Sea (YS) has changed significantly due to sea-level rising and the Kuroshio incursion since the last deglaciation. In this study, biomarker records of core F10B from the mud area southwest off Cheju Island (MSWCI) were generated to evaluate phytoplankton productivity and community structure changes in response to environmental evolution during the last 14 kyr. The contents of diatom, dinoflagellate and haptophyte biomarkers (brassicasterol, dinosterol and C37 alkenones) display similar trends, with increasing phytoplankton productivity during the last 14 kyr due to the increased influences of the Kuroshio, and especially due to the eddy-induced upwelling during the late Holocene. On the other hand, the contents of terrestrial biomarkers (C28 +C30 +C32 n-alkanols) and terrestrial organic matter (TOM) proxies (TMBR’ and BIT) all reveal decreasing TOM input into the area around the sampling site for the 14 kyr, mostly due to sea-level rising. Phytoplankton biomarker ratios reveal a shift from a haptophyte-dominated community at 6.2–2.5 kyr BP to a diatom-dominated community at 2.5–1.45 kyr BP, likely caused by a stronger cold eddy circulation system at 2.5–1.45 kyr BP in the MSWCI.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ministry of Education/Qingdao Collaborative Innovation Center of Marine Science and Technology, Key Laboratory of Marine Chemistry Theory and Technology (Ocean University of China), Qingdao, 266100, P. R. China

    Zineng Yuan, Lei Xing, Li Li, Hailong Zhang & Meixun Zhao

  2. Institute of Marine Organic Geochemistry, Ocean University of China, Qingdao, 266100, P. R. China

    Zineng Yuan, Lei Xing, Li Li, Hailong Zhang & Meixun Zhao

  3. CAS Key Laboratory of Marginal Sea Geology, South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, 510301, P. R. China

    Rong Xiang

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  1. Zineng Yuan
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  2. Lei Xing
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  3. Li Li
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Correspondence to Meixun Zhao.

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MCTL Contribution No. 4.

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Yuan, Z., Xing, L., Li, L. et al. Biomarker records of phytoplankton productivity and community structure changes during the last 14000 years in the mud area southwest off Cheju Island, East China Sea. J. Ocean Univ. China 12, 611–618 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11802-013-2230-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11802-013-2230-9

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