Distribution of tetraether lipids in surface sediments of the northern South China Sea: Implications for TEX86 proxies

Archaea have unique glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraether (GDGT) lipids that can be used to develop paleotemperature proxies such as TEX86. This research is to validate proposed GDGT-proxies for paleotemperature determination in the South China Sea (SCS). Samples were collected from core-top sediments (0–5 cm) in the northern SCS. Total lipids were extracted to obtain core GDGTs, which were identified and quantified using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS). The abundance of isoprenoidal GDGTs (iGDGTs) ranged from 271.5 ng/g dry sediment to 1266.3 ng/g dry sediment, whereas the branched GDGTs (bGDGTs), supposedly derived from terrestrial sources, ranged from 22.2 ng/g dry sediment to 56.7 ng/g dry sediment. The TEX86-derived sea surface temperatures ranged from 20.9 °C in the coast (water depth < 160 m) to 27.9 °C offshore (water depth > 1000 m). TEX86-derived temperatures near shore (<160 m water depth) averaged 23.1 ± 2.5 °C (n = 4), which were close to the satellite-derived winter mean sea surface temperature (average 22.6 ± 1.0 °C, n = 4); whereas the TEX86-derived temperatures offshore averaged 27.4 ± 0.3 °C (n = 7) and were consistent with the satellite mean annual sea surface temperature (average 26.8 ± 0.4 °C, n = 7). These results suggest that TEX86 may record the sea surface mean annual temperature in the open ocean, while it likely records winter sea surface temperature in the shallower water.

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► Glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers (GDGTs) are determined from the northern South China Sea.
► TEX86 could record the sea surface mean annual temperature in the open ocean.
► In the shallower water, TEX86-derived temperature is likely to present winter sea surface temperature instead of the sea surface mean annual temperature.