Compositions and Contents of Amino Acids in Core Sediments from Chinese Nansha Sea Area and Paleoenvironment

Key words: 
• Nansha Sea area /
• core sediments /
• amino acids /
• paleoenvironment

Abstract: The abundance and distribution of amino acids in sediments are closely related to the organism amounts and sedimentary environment. However organism amounts are controlled by the climatic condition during sedimentary period. Thus, the abundance and distribution of amino acids in sediments can indicate the situa- tion of paleoclimate. In this paper,amino acids from a sedimentary core section (0-440 cm) of Nansha Sea area have been examined. Results show that 17 kinds of amino acids are present in this core section;amino acid contents are from 925 to 2343 ug/g; acidic amino acid to neutral amino acid ratios are from 0.48 to 0.71. The section variation of amino acid contents and composition of amino acids show alkalic sedimentary environment and the four cold-warm evolutions of paleoclimate during this sedimentary period,respectively.These imply that abundance and composition of amino acids can be used as an good indicator of sedimentary paleoenvironment.