AUTHOR=Ran Lihua , Ma Wentao , Wiesner Martin G. , Wang Yuntao , Chen Jianfang , Zhang Lanlan , Yang Zhi , Zhang Jingjing , Li Hongliang , Ren Jian , Xiang Rong , Fredj Erick TITLE=Sediment Resuspension as a Major Contributor to Sinking Particles in the Northwestern South China Sea: Evidence From Observations and Modeling JOURNAL=Frontiers in Marine Science VOLUME=9 YEAR=2022 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/marine-science/articles/10.3389/fmars.2022.819340 DOI=10.3389/fmars.2022.819340 ISSN=2296-7745 ABSTRACT=

The lateral advection of sinking particles is a well-known phenomenon in the South China Sea (SCS) and has a significant impact on the estimation of the efficiency of the biological carbon pump. However, little is known about the sources and pathways of sinking particles. Here, we present benthic and freshwater diatom fluxes and relative abundances collected by a sediment trap deployed at a water depth of 1,000 m and more than 500 m above the seafloor in the northwestern SCS, indicating that laterally transported resuspended sediment accounts for a significant part of the particle flux to the deep sea. A Lagrangian particle tracking model (LPTM) revealed that the resuspended particles likely originated from the neighboring continental slope, approximately 12–145 km to the west of the study site. Sediment trap observations and the LPTM together indicated that the impact of resuspended sediment occurred mainly in the deep water, and especially strong sediment resuspension was related to summer monsoon-induced coastal upwelling. The results suggest that particle resuspension has an important impact on the biological pump as well as on paleoenvironmental reconstructions of the SCS.