Human impacts on organic matter sedimentation in a proximal shelf setting, Hong Kong

Internal structure of event layers preserved on the Andaman Sea continental shelf, Thailand: tsunami vs. storm and flash-flood deposits

“…In the course of flash floods during the southwest monsoon (rainy season), these fine sediments are subsequently transported through ephemeral channels towards the sea (e.g., Curran et al, 2002;Mulder et al, 2003;Malmon et al, 2004;Owens, 2005;Hill et al, 2007). Enhanced sedimentation due to anthropogenic impacts has been observed in different settings such as tropical estuaries in Papua New Guinea, Vietnam, Australia and Indonesia (Wolanski and Spagnol, 2000); the Pearl River in Hong Kong (Owen and Lee, 2004;Owen, 2005); and the Waiapu River in New Zealand (Wadman and McNinch, 2008). Offshore Khao Lak, Feldens et al (2012) found sediment distributions composed of silt and fine sand deposited above 15 m water depth that were orientated parallel to the shoreline.…”

100-year ecosystem history elucidated from inner shelf sediments off the Pearl River estuary, China

“…While the nutrients, pollutants, carbon system, and ecosystem of the modern PRE and adjacent coastal waters were being investigated, parallel efforts were made to explore its historical context. This focused on the recovery and analysis of short sediment cores that revealed an overall increase in the fluxes of terrestrial material, anthropogenic pollutants, and marine organic matter over the past few decades (e.g., Jia and Peng, 2003;Ip et al, 2004;Owen and Lee, 2004;Liu et al, 2005;Hu et al, 2008Hu et al, , 2009). These changes were attributed to increasing agricultural activity, sewage discharge, marine fish farming, rapid population growth, and industrial development in the Pearl River Delta region, and enhanced soil erosion and delivery of associated nutrients to the PRE.…”

“…However, the plankton community structure at A6 appears to respond to the fluvial nutrient load immediately, which may slow down the response of the marine carbon system, as will be discussed later. Here, it should be pointed out that the timing of the initial, gradual increase in MOC corr around 1940 at sites A9 and A7, was also observed in other types of record extracted from the PRE and adjacent areas, including sedimentation rates (Owen and Lee, 2004), algal markers and coprostanol (a marker of domestic sewage) (Hu et al, 2008), and hydrocarbons (Liu et al, 2005;Peng et al, 2008). This is a period associated with wartime deforestation, and increasing urbanization, industrialization, and reclamation after World War II (Owen and Lee, 2004).…”

Geochemistry of organic carbon and nitrogen in surface sediments of coastal Bohai Bay inferred from their ratios and stable isotopic signatures

“…N values (Owen and Lee, 2004). There are plenty of reports on the environmental aspects of Bohai Bay (e.g.…”