Nitrogen forms and decomposition of organic carbon in the southern Bohai Sea core sediments

Study on form characteristics of nitrogen in marine sediments is the primary method to research its biogeochemical cycling and nitrogen form characteristics in core sediments can reflect the process and results of early diagenesis in a certain degree. In this paper, Sequential extraction process in natural grain size was used for studying the existent forms of nitrogen in five core sediments of the southern Bohai Sea for the first time. Nitrogen was divided into two parts -transferable and fixed based on whether it could be extracted by the reagent. Distributions and early diagenesis of transferable nitrogen forms in the southern Bohai Sea were researched integratedly. Results indicate that IEF - N and OSF-N are predominant forms in transferable part in the studied core sediments. Contents of different nitrogen forms vary differently with depth, and have different diagenesis process. Decomposition constant of organic nitrogen (ON) and OC are about 15.51 × 10aand 4.79× 10arespective