Spatial variations of carbon, nitrogen, phosphorous and sulfur in the salt marsh sediments of the Yangtze Estuary in China

Abstract Surface sediments and three sediment vibrocores were collected from the salt marsh of the Yangtze Estuary in order to examine the C, N, P and S distributions. Marsh plants and suspended particulate matter (SPM) from the river were also sampled and analyzed in order to determine their elemental compositions. The levels of total organic carbon (0.1–0.7%) and C/N ratios (6–11) in the surface sediments of the Yangtze Estuary salt marsh were relatively low compared with those reported for other salt marshes in European and North American coastal areas. The total organic carbon (TOC) level and C/N ratio of the surface sediments were similar to those of the SPM in the Yangtze Estuary, but were much lower than those of the marsh plant samples. These findings support the view that organic matter in the surface sediments is largely derived from SPM in the river, with minor contributions from the marsh vegetation. Total phosphorus (TP) showed irregular variation in its spatial distribution, whereas the TOC, total nitrogen (TN) and total sulfur (TS) concentrations were highest in the high marsh zones and lowest in the bare flat areas. This pattern was related to the spatial variability of the sediment grain size (i.e. clay-rich sediments in the high marsh zones resulted in elevated TOC, TN and TS contents). Some vibrocore sediments in the mid-depths of the high and low marsh zones, however, showed greater TOC contents than might have been predicted from the TOC-grain size relationship. This suggested the existence of additional organic inputs (i.e. marsh vegetation) for these vibrocore sediment sections, despite their original riverine source. After eliminating the effect of grain size, it was calculated that 22–55% of the TOC and 0.6–35% of the TN in the sediment samples were derived from the marsh vegetation. Considering both the vertical accretion rate and the ecosystem evolution of the salt marsh, it was estimated that the annual contributions of TOC and TN made by the marsh vegetation to the sediments in the Yangtze Estuary were 5.8 × 10 11  g C yr −1 and 2.3 × 10 10  g N yr −1 , respectively, with corresponding accumulation rates of 1.1–1.5 × 10 10  g C yr −1 and 4.4–5.8 × 10 8  g N yr −1 at the present time.