Sedimentary Organic Nitrogen Isotopic Constraints on the Mid‐Holocene Transition in the Nitrogen Dynamics of the Northern South China Sea

Abstract

Millennial‐scale nitrogen (N) cycling processes in marginal seas and their response to climate change have not been well understood. Here, we present high‐resolution (ca. 110 years) organic nitrogen isotope (δ15Norg) data since the last deglaciation (16.1 ka) derived from a highly resolved sediment core in the northern South China Sea, aiming to explore millennial‐scale N cycling processes in this area. Unlike most bulk nitrogen isotope (δ15Nbulk) records from the South China Sea, the δ15Norg records show a clear response to well‐defined climatic episodes during the last deglaciation and early Holocene (EH, ∼11.7 to 9 ka), but exhibit a gradually decreasing trend in mid‐to‐late Holocene (since ca. 9 ka). During the last deglaciation and EH, the upper water column N dynamics are controlled by the lateral transport of surface nitrate from eastern tropical Pacific (ETP) presumably via the North Pacific Intermediate Water (NPIW) and to some extent, influenced by the altered input of terrigenous matter driven by sea level change. The significant decrease in δ15Norg since the mid‐Holocene (at ca. 9 ka) can be best explained by the increase in local N2 fixation forced by enhanced El Niño. This mechanism is consistent with modern observations. Overall, our results may reflect the main controlling factors of surface ocean N dynamics have shifted from zonal transport of nitrate from the ETP to El Niño since the mid‐Holocene.