ESTIMATIONS OF PRIMARY PRODUCTION AND EXPORT PRODUCTION IN THE SOUTH CHINA SEA BASED ON SEDIMENT TRAP EXPERIMENTS

The results of time series sediment trap experiments in the South Chin a Sea show that particulate organic carbon (POC) flutes are influenced by the monsoons. The increase of productivity in the northern South C hina Sea is mainly due to northeast monsoon while in the central South China Sea the influence of southwest monsoon becomes more prominent. The annual primary production and export production calculated based o n POC fluxes are 53.0-63.4 and 10.32-12.93 gC.m(-2).a(-1), respectivel y. The enhancement of POC flux during monsoon period suggest that high er palaeoproductivity or organic carbon accumulation rate in glacial a ge in the South China Sea might be the result of strengthening of the monsoons.