Amino Acids in Surface Sediment of Chukchi SeaCanada Basin

Key words: 
• Amino acids /
• Bering Strait /
• Chukchi Sea /
• Canada Basin /
• surface sediment

Abstract: The Cruise of Chinese Second Arctic Science Expedition were conducted from July to September 2003, The concentrations of total hydrolyzable amino acids (THAA), hexosamines(HA) in the Chukchi Sea and Canada Basin surface sediment samples were measured. The major compositions were different between areas, in Chukchi Sea, Glutamic acid(Glu), Glycine (Gly) were the major forms of amino acid, while Serine(Ser) took the main part at the Stations B80, B11,P27 in Canada Basin, and features in sediments included total organic carbon(TOC),total nitrogen(TN),THAA,HA ,etc. varied greatly with different areas, TOC, HA were lowest at BS11 and that THAA,TN were lowest at B80; TOC, TN were highest at R03 while R11 had the highest THAA and P11 had the hightest HA. The spatial variation of amino acids in surface sediments of Chukchi SeaCanada Basin was discussed, DI’’ was introduced according to amino acid selective preservation and Principal Component Analysis to investigate the organic matter degradation of the seven stations sediments, by which we sort them as C15>BS11>R11>S11>P11>R03>B80, the sequence was related to sediment sources and hydrographic conditions. This indicated Bering Strait organic matter in sediments was fresher than Chukchi Cape and Canada Basin, between which was Chukchi shelf. 