Recently stable carbon and nitrogen isotopic ratios (δ
13C and δ
15N) of the sedimentary organic matter have become to be applied to reconstruct past changes of the biogeochemical processes in surface waters, although they were used only as the mixing tracers of terrestrial organic matter into coastal sediments during 1970's and 80's. While both of the δ
13C and δ
15N values of the organic matter produced in the surface water change due to the isotopic fractionation processes during the uptake of inorganic substance (CO
2 and NO
3- etc.) by phytoplankton, the reconstructed paleoceanograhic factors are completely different between the δ
13C and δ
15N, such as the [CO
2]
aq and the phytoplankton growth rate for the δ
13C and the nitrate availability for δ
15N, reflecting the difference in Σ CO
2 and nitrate budgets in the sea surface water.
Because the magnitude of carbon isotopic fractionation during the photosynthesis of phytoplankton are influenced by [CO
2]
aq in the surface water, many recent studies of the organic δ
13C in the sediment cores discuss about past changes in pCO
2 in the surface water. However, the phytoplankton growth rate also governs the δ
13C values of phytoplankton, andtherefore, it is actually very difficult to extract purely the [CO
2]
aq data from the organic δ
13C values. On the other hand, δ
15N of sediment is now believed to reflect the past changes in nitrate utilization rates in the surface water (
i.e. biological pumping efficiency). Because the isotope fractionation during the nitrate uptake by phytoplankton makes theδ
15N values of the remaining nitrate much higher in the surface water body, the relativelylow δ
15N values of organic matter can be used to trace a upwelling center of the surface water.
The δ
13C and δ
15N values in the particulate organic matter change largely during their sinking and sedimentation processes. Both of the two isotopic values in the sinking particledecrease downward irrespective of their sample sites, probably due to the selective decomposition of amino acids which have relatively higher δ
13C and δ
15N values than the bulk organic matter. Contrary to this, the δ
13C and δ
15N values increase again on the sediment surface. Because the changes in δ
13C and δ
15N values of organic matter in the sinking and sedimentation processes are universal and somewhat constant processes, it seems reasonable to apply the downcore δ
13C and δ
15N variations to reconstruct the past changes in the surface water processes.
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