Natural abundances of 15N as a source indicator for near-shore marine sedimentary and dissolved nitrogen |
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| Authors: | Robert E Sweeney IR Kaplan |
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| Institution: | Department of Earth and Space Sciences, Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90024 U.S.A. |
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| Abstract: | Because organic matter originating in the euphotic zone of the ocean may have a distinctive nitrogen isotope composition (15N/14N), as compared to organic matter originating in terrestrial soils, it may be used to evaluate the relative nitrogen contribution to marine and estuarine sediment. The nitrogen isotope ratios of 42 sediment samples of total nitrogen and 38 dissolved pore-water ammonium samples from Santa Barbara Basin sediment cores were measured. The range of δ15N values for total nitrogen was with a mean of and for pore water ammonium, with a mean of 10.2‰.The results suggest that the dissolved ammonium in the pore water is produced from bacterial degradation of marine organic matter. The range of δ15N values for total nitrogen in the sediment is interpreted as resulting from an admixture of nitrogen derived from marine () and terrestrial (+2‰ marines. The marine component of this mixture, composed principally of calcium carbonate with smaller amounts of opal and organic matter, contains ～ 1.0% nitrogen. The terrestrial component, which comprises over 80% of the sediment, contains ～ 0.1% organically bound nitrogen and accounts for > 25% of the total nitrogen in Santa Barbara Basin sediment. |
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