Linking Monsoon Activity with River-Derived Sediments Deposition in the Northern South China Sea

The history of the East Asian monsoon (EAM) since Last Glacial Maximum is reconstructed based on records in a sediment core retrieved from the northern South China Sea. The provenance of organic carbon and the EAM’s evolution are investigated using combined organic carbon, grain size, and AMS 14C dating analysis. Responding to the strong winter monsoon, the marine organic matter was dominated in the sediments, and δ13C of organic matter was high during the last glacial period. During the Holocene, the primary productivity decreased and the dilution effect of riverine inorganic clastics strengthened. Accordingly, the total organic carbon contents and δ13C values decreased, and terrestrial organic matter content increased in the core sediments. The 4 μm grain size fraction, as the environmental sensitive grain size component, is determined to reconstruct the paleoclimatic records. During the last glacial period, the contents of 4 μm grain size component were mainly controlled by the sea level changes. Upon the Holocene, the influence of the sea level changes weakened and the roles of current system and provenance strengthened. The correlation between the EAM and solar insolation forcing is also discussed in this paper.