Geomagnetic paleointensity dating of South China Sea sediments for the last 130 kyr

Relative paleointensity records from the northern South China Sea, northwest Pacific Ocean were studied in two gravity piston cores. Continuous mineral magnetic and paleomagnetic measurements were made using discrete sediment samples. Detailed rock magnetic parameters, such as thermomagnetic and high-field hysteresis data, indicate that pseudo-single domain magnetite in a narrow range of grain-size and concentration is the main contributor to the remanent magnetization. The uniform magnetic mineralogy meets the commonly accepted criteria for establishing relative paleointensity records. The relative paleointensity (RPI) curves were constructed by normalizing the natural remanent magnetization (NRM) with isothermal remanent magnetization (IRM), both in the 20-60 mT demagnetization state. Dating constraints have been provided by radiocarbon ages in the upper 400 cm of both cores. Furthermore, we have correlated our paleointensity records with NAPIS-75, S.Atlantic-1089, Sint-200 and NOPAPIS-250 to determine the chronological RPI framework for the South China Sea (SCS-PIS). Although some temporal offsets of paleointensity features between the different records have been recognized, their similar shape suggests that relative paleointensity on the 10(3)-10(4) year scale is globally coherent and can provide an age framework for sediments independent of delta O-18 ages.

Diversity and spatial distribution of amoA-encoding archaea in the deep-sea sediments of the tropical West Pacific Continental Margin

The ecological characteristics of the deep-sea amoA-encoding archaea (AEA) are largely unsolved. Our aim was to study the diversity, structure and distribution of the AEA community in the sediments of the tropical West Pacific Continental Margin, to develop a general view of the AEA biogeography in the deep-sea extreme environment. Archaeal amoA clone libraries were constructed. Diverse and novel amoA sequences were identified, with the Bohol Sea, Bashi Strait and Sibuyan Sea harbouring the highest and the Bicol Shelf the lowest AEA diversity. Phylogenetic and statistical analyses illustrate a heterogeneous distribution of the AEA community, probably caused by the differential distribution of the terrestrial or estuarine AEA in the various sampling sites. The deep-sea sedimentary environments potentially harbour diverse and novel AEA in the tropical West Pacific Continental Margin. The stations in the Philippine inland seas (including station 3043) may represent AEA assemblages with various terrestrial influences and the stations connected directly to the open Philippine Sea may represent marine environment-dominant AEA assemblages. Our study indicates the potential importance of geological and climatic events in the transport of terrestrial micro-organisms to the deep-sea sedimentary environments, almost totally neglected previously.

Extracellular hydrolytic enzyme screening of culturable heterotrophic bacteria from deep-sea sediments of the Southern Okinawa Trough

The Southern Okinawa Trough is an area of focused sedimentation due to particulate matter export from the shelf of the East China Sea and the island of Taiwan. In order to understand the geomicrobiological characteristics of this unique sedimentary environment, bacterial cultivations were carried out for an 8.61 m CASQ core sediment sample. A total of 98 heterotrophic bacterial isolates were characterized based on 16S rRNA gene phylogenetic analysis. These isolates can be grouped into four bacterial divisions, including 13 genera and more than 20 species. Bacteria of the gamma-Proteobacteria lineage, especially those from the Halomonas ( 27 isolates) and Psychrobacter ( 20 isolates) groups, dominate in the culturable bacteria assemblage. They also have the broadest distribution along the depth of the sediment. More than 72.4% of the isolates showed extracellular hydrolytic enzyme activities, such as amylases, proteases, lipases and Dnases, and nearly 59.2% were cold-adapted exoenzyme-producers. Several Halomonas strains show almost all the tested hydrolases activities. The wide distribution of exoenzyme activities in the isolates may indicate their important ecological role of element biogeochemical cycling in the studied deep-sea sedimentary environment.

Fine-scale vertical distribution of bacteria in the East Pacific deep-sea sediments determined via 16S rRNA gene T-RFLP and clone library analyses

Although the deep-sea sediments harbor diverse and novel bacteria with important ecological and environmental functions, a comprehensive view of their community characteristics is still lacking, considering the vast area and volume of the deep-sea sedimentary environments. Sediment bacteria vertical distribution and community structure were studied of the E272 site in the East Pacific Ocean with the molecular methods of 16S rRNA gene T-RFLP (terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism) and clone library analyses. Layered distribution of the bacterial assemblages was detected by both methods, indicating that the shallow sediments (40 cm in depth) harbored a diverse and distinct bacterial composition with fine-scale spatial heterogeneity. Substantial bacterial diversity was detected and nine major bacterial lineages were obtained, including Acidobacteria, Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Chloroflexi, Nitrospirae, Planctomycetes, Proteobacteria, and the candidate divisions OP8 and TM6. Three subdivisions of the Proteobacteria presented in our libraries, including the alpha-, gamma- and delta-Proteobacteria. Most of our sequences have low similarity with known bacterial 16S rRNA genes, indicating that these sequences may represent as-yet-uncultivated novel bacteria. Most of our sequences were related to the GenBank nearest neighboring sequences retrieved from marine sediments, especially from deep-sea methane seep, gas hydrate or mud volcano environments. Several sequences were related to the sequences recovered from the deep-sea hydrothermal vent or basalt glasses-bearing sediments, indicating that our deep-sea sampling site might be influenced to certain degree by the nearby hydrothermal field of the East Pacific Rise at 13A degrees N.

Diversity, abundance and distribution of amoA-encoding archaea in deep-sea methane seep sediments of the Okhotsk Sea

The authors would like to thank Jin Sun, Jian Sun, Liangliang Kong, Nianshuang Wang, Chunhui Wang, Linbao Zhang and Ying Zhang for their assistance in the project. This work was supported by China Ocean Mineral Resources R&D Association grants DYXM-115-02-2-20 and DYXM-115-02-2-6, Hi-Tech Research and Development Program of China grant 2007AA091903, China National Natural Science Foundation grant 40576069, National Basic Research Program of China grant 2009CB219506 and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities of China grant 09CX05005A. M. G. K. was funded by incentive funds provided by the UofL-EVPR office and the US National Science Foundation (EF-0412129).

Diversity of Both the Cultivable Protease-Producing Bacteria and Their Extracellular Proteases in the Sediments of the South China Sea

Protease-producing bacteria are known to play an important role in degrading sedimentary particular organic nitrogen, and yet, their diversity and extracellular proteases remain largely unknown. In this paper, the diversity of the cultivable protease-producing bacteria and their extracellular proteases in the sediments of the South China Sea was investigated. The richness of the cultivable protease-producing bacteria reached 10(6) cells/g in all sediment samples. Analysis of the 16S rRNA gene sequences revealed that the predominant cultivated protease-producing bacteria are Gammaproteobacteria affiliated with the genera Pseudoalteromonas, Alteromonas, Marinobacter, Idiomarina, Halomonas, Vibrio, Shewanella, Pseudomonas, and Rheinheimera, with Alteromonas (34.6%) and Pseudoalteromonas (28.2%) as the predominant groups. Inhibitor analysis showed that nearly all the extracellular proteases from the bacteria are serine proteases or metalloproteases. Moreover, these proteases have different hydrolytic ability to different proteins, reflecting they may belong to different kinds of serine proteases or metalloproteases. To our knowledge, this study represents the first report of the diversity of bacterial proteases in deep-sea sediments.

Authigenic sulfide minerals and their sulfur isotopes in sediments of the northern continental slope of the South China Sea and their implications for methane flux and gas hydrate formation

This is a report of the study of the authigenic sulfide minerals and their sulfur isotopes in a sediment core (NH-1) collected on the northern continental slope of the South China Sea, where other geophysical and geochemical evidence seems to suggest gas hydrate formation in the sediments. The study has led to the findings: (1) the pyrite content in sediments was relatively high and its grain size relatively large compared with that in normal pelagic or hemipelagic sediments; (2) the shallowest depth of the acid volatile sulfide (AVS) content maximum was at 437.5 cm (> 2 mu mol/g), which was deeper than that of the authigenic pyrite content maximum (at 141.5-380.5 cm); (3) delta S-34 of authigenic pyrite was positive (maximum: +15 parts per thousand) at depth interval of 250-380 cm; (4) the positive delta S-34 coincided with pyrite enrichment. Compared with the results obtained from the Black Sea sediments by Jorgensen and coworkers, these observations indicated that at the NH-1 site, the depth of the sulfate-methane interface (SMI) would be or once was at about 437.5-547.5 cm and the relatively shallow SMI depth suggested high upward methane fluxes. This was in good agreement with the results obtained from pore water sulfate gradients and core head-space methane concentrations in sediment cores collected in the area. All available evidence suggested that methane gas hydrate formation may exist or may have existed in the underlying sediments.

Vertical distribution of bacterial and archaeal communities along discrete layers of a deep-sea cold sediment sample at the East Pacific Rise (similar to 13 degrees N)

The community structure and vertical distribution of prokaryotes in a deep-sea (ca. 3,191 m) cold sediment sample (ca. 43 cm long) collected at the East Pacific Rise (EPR) similar to 13 degrees N were studied with 16SrDNA-based molecular analyses. Total community DNA was extracted from each of four discrete layers EPRDS-1, -2, -3 and -4 (from top to bottom) and 16S rDNA were amplified by PCR. Cluster analysis of DGGE profiles revealed that the bacterial communities shifted sharply between EPRDS-1 and EPRDS-2 in similarity coefficient at merely 49%. Twenty-three sequences retrieved from DGGE bands fell into 11 groups based on BLAST and bootstrap analysis. The dominant groups in the bacterial communities were Chloroflexi, Gamma proteobacteria, Actinobacterium and unidentified bacteria, with their corresponding percentages varying along discrete layers. Pairwise Fst (F-statistics) values between the archaeal clone libraries indicated that the archaeal communities changed distinctly between EPRDS-2 and EPRDS-3. Sequences from the archaeal libraries were divided to eight groups. Crenarchaea Marine Group I (MGI) was prevalent in EPRDS-1 at 83%, while Uncultured Crenarchaea group II B (UCII B) abounded in EPRDS-4 at 61%. Our results revealed that the vertically stratified distribution of prokaryotic communities might be in response to the geochemical settings and suggested that the sampling area was influenced by hydrothermalism. The copresence of members related to hydrothermalism and cold deep-sea environments in the microbial community indicated that the area might be a transitional region from hydrothermal vents to cold deep-sea sediments.

Myroides profundi sp nov., isolated from deep-sea sediment of the southern Okinawa Trough

A Gram-negative, nonmotile, aerobic and oxidase- and catalase-positive bacterium,, designated D25(T), was isolated from the deep-sea sediments of the southern Okinawa Trough area. Phylogenetic analyses of 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that strain D25(T), fell within the genus Myroides, with 99.2%, 96.0% and 93.4% sequence similarities to the only three recognized species of Myroides. However, the DNA-DNA similarity Value between strain D25(T) and its nearest neighbour Myroides odoratimimus JCM 7460(T) was only 49.9% ( < 70%). Several phenotypic properties could be used to distinguish strain D25(T) from other Myroides species. The main cellular fatty acids of strain D25(T) were iso-C-15:0, iso-C-17:1 omega 9C, iso-C(17:0)3-OH and Summed Feature 3 (comprising C-16:1 omega 7c and/or iso-C(15:0)2-OH). The major respiratory quinone was MK-6. The DNA G+C content was 33.0 mol%. The results of the polyphasic taxonomy analysis suggested that strain D251(T) represents a novel species of the genus Myroides, for which the name Myroides profundi sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is D25(T) (=CCTCC M 208030(T) = DSM 19823(T)).

Studies on the regional feature of organic carbon in sediments off the Huanghe River Estuary waters

Organic carbon (OC) in definitely small area sediments(according to marine dimension)off the Huanghe River Estuary is investigated in order to evaluate the feature of regional difference of physical and chemical properties in marginal sea sediments. The distributions of OC in sediments with natural grain size and the relationship with the pH, Eh,Es and Fe3+/Fe2+ are discussed. In addition,OC decomposition rates in surfacial/subsurfacial sediments are estimated. OC concentrations range from 0.26% to 1.8%(wt)in the study area. Significant differences in OC content and in horizontal distribution as well as various trends in surfacial/subsurfacial sediments exhibit the feature of regional difference remarkably in marginal sea sediments. The complicated distribution of OC in surface sediments is due to the influence of bacterial activity and abundance, bioturbation of benthos and physical disturbance. The OC decomposition rate constant in surfacial/subsurfacial sediments ranges from 0.0097 to 0.076 a(-1) and the relatively high values may be mainly related to bacteria that are mainly responsible for OC mineralization;meio-and macrofauna affect OC degradation both directly, through feeding on it, and indirectly through bioturbation and at the same time coarse sediments are also disadvantageous to OC preservation. In almost all the middle and bottom sediments the contents of OC decrease with the increase of deposition depth, which indicates that mineralization of OC in the middle and bottom sediments has occurred via processes like SO42- reduction and Fe-oxide reduction.

中国南海深海沉积物中的微生物资源

由于采样条件和培养条件的限制，深海微生物研究的较少，因此目前海洋微生物资源的研究主要集中在近海和浅海。而深海独特的生态环境，使微生物形成了独特的代谢体系，成为新颖化合物的重要来源，具有很好的开发应用前景。本文首次较为系统的研究了深度为1758-3600m南海海底沉积物中深海微生物资源的分离和活性菌株的筛选情况，旨在为探索我国南海深海微生物资源提供一定的科学依据。 采用多种分离培养基从6个不同深度（1758、2620、3200、3500、3587和3600m）的南海深海沉积物样品中，分离到225株深海微生物，包括40株放线菌和185株细菌。以分离得到的225株深海微生物为研究对象，从产蛋白酶、抗真菌、杀虫三个方面进行活性菌株的筛选，研究南海深海沉积物中的微生物资源状况： （1）.将分离到的225株深海微生物，同时在10℃、28℃、45℃三个温度下进行产低温蛋白酶、中温蛋白酶、高温蛋白酶的筛选。初筛结果表明：这225株深海微生物大都有大小不同的产蛋白酶能力。10℃有产蛋白酶的有109株，28 ℃产蛋白酶的有160株，45℃产蛋白酶的有117株。筛选到一株在45℃下有较强产蛋白酶能力的菌株B1394，其酶活可达873U/ml，有一定的应用前景。通过形态观察、生理生化测定、16SrDNA序列测定，将B1394定名为枯草芽孢杆菌（Bacillus subtilis）。其粗酶液性质研究发现：最适酶活温度60℃，最适pH 8.0， 40℃、50℃和60℃热稳定性较好， Mn2+ 、Mg2+ 、Ca2+对该蛋白酶有激活作用，Hg2+ 、Fe3+ 、Cu2+ 、Zn2+ 、 Fe2+对其有抑制作用，苯甲基磺酰氟（PMSF）几乎完全抑制其活性，推断为丝氨酸蛋白酶。 （2）.对其中100株深海细菌和40株深海放线菌，以立枯丝核菌（ Rhizoctonia solani）和白色念珠菌（Candida albicans）为靶菌进行了抗真菌活性的筛选。初筛结果表明：分别有37株和35株深海细菌对立枯丝核菌和白色念珠菌有抑菌活性，分别占被检测细菌数目的37%和35%；有18株深海放线菌对立枯丝核菌有抑制作用，占被检测放线菌总数的45%。筛选到一株有较强抗真菌活性的深海放线菌SHA6，其发酵液对包括尖孢镰刀菌（Fusarium oxysporum）在内的10种植物病原菌有明显的抑制作用。对其发酵液的理化性质进行初步研究发现SHA6发酵液具有良好的热稳定性和酸碱稳定性, 对SHA6进行分子生物学鉴定后将其初步定名为为橙色单胞菌（Aurantimonas altamirensis）。 （3）.以卤虫为初步筛选模型，对其中的20株深海放线菌进行了杀虫方面的筛选，结果发现有5个深海放线菌菌株表现有较强的杀虫活性。其中深海放线菌SHA4发酵液的乙酸乙脂提取物杀卤虫的活性最强，在浓度为100μg/ml时杀卤虫活性为83%,而在浓度400ppm时，48h可以杀死38%的甜菜夜娥。对SHA4进行分子生物学鉴定后将其初步定为拟诺卡氏菌属（Nocardiopsis sp）。 总之，本论文阐明了我国南海深海沉积物中微生物资源状况的初步研究结果，为进一步开发利用我国南海深海微生物资源奠定了基础。

ABUNDANCE OF CHEMICAL-ELEMENTS IN CONTINENTAL-SHELF SEDIMENT OF CHINA

For the first time, an element abundance table of China Shelf Sea sediments is published based on 286 samples from the continental shelf of China analyzed for 62 chemical elements. The shelf sediments result from the redistribution of sediments from China over the continental shelf. On the basis of comparison of element abundances among the China shelf samples, hemipelagic Okinawa Trough samples, and pelagic brown clay from the West Pacific, it is clear that each has its own elemental characteristics. Hg anomaly enrichment in Okinawa Trough sediments may be used as an indicator of hydrothermal activity.

东、西太平洋深海沉积物细菌多样性研究

深海生物圈有着不同于陆地和浅海的典型特点，例如高压、低温、永久黑暗及寡营养，并且深海微生物具有特殊的代谢途径及庞大的生物量，这使得深海成为一个巨大的有待开发利用的生物资源宝库。 本文研究的样品分别取自东太平洋E272站位(12°36’39"N, 104°19’28"W)和西太平洋Ph05-5站位(16°04’93"N, 124º34’48"E)。E272站位距离东太平洋13°N海隆45km，水深3 191m；而Ph05-5站位地处西菲律宾海盆，在黑潮源区附近，位于西太平洋暖池区边缘，水深3 382m，并且Ph05-5岩芯一共包含了五个明显的火山灰层。 本文采用了末端限制性片段长度多态性分析（T-RFLP）和16S rRNA 基因文库分析的方法在小尺度上对东太平洋E272站位的沉积物样品进行细菌群落结构的研究。研究结果表明沉积物细菌群落结构在小尺度上存在明显的垂直变化。系统进化分析表明，该沉积物样品的细菌多样性较高，共包含9个主要的门类，包括变形菌门、绿弯菌门（绿色非硫细菌）、浮霉菌门、酸杆菌门、放线菌门（高G+C革兰氏阳性菌）、拟杆菌门、硝化螺旋菌门、以及两个待定的门类OP8和TM6。其中变形菌门细菌是一类在海洋中非常常见的细菌，广泛分布于各个海洋环境，在我们的文库当中发现了变形菌门的三个纲，包括α-、-、-变形菌纲。本项研究充分表明该沉积物环境中具有较高的细菌多样性，在小尺度上细菌群落垂直分布明显，其结果也可从侧面反映深海沉积物近表层处的环境条件在小尺度上的垂直变化显著。 对西太平洋暖池区沉积物样品的细菌群落的研究也采用16S rRNA 基因文库分析的方法。系统进化分析表明该沉积物样品细菌的多样性相对较低，一共包含了六个不同的门类，包括变形菌门、浮霉菌门、放线菌门、厚壁菌门（低G+C革兰氏阳性菌）、绿弯菌门、酸杆菌门。在这个沉积物样品中也发现了变形菌门的三个纲包括α-、-和-变形菌纲。聚类分析和系统进化分析都表明表层的细菌群落同其它8层的细菌群落存在明显的差异，并且其它8层包括5个火山灰层和3个远洋粘土层的细菌群落结构差异不大，推测火山灰成分不仅对火山灰层的细菌群落产生影响，而且可能通过扩散对整个沉积物的微生物群落结构都产生影响。表层可能由于沉积时间较晚所以受影响相对较小或表层本身不同于较深层次的理化条件而使表层群落存在较大差异。 对东、西太平洋不同环境下的两个深海沉积物样品的细菌多样性进行比较，结合其它研究发现变形菌门细菌在不同深海环境中都普遍存在，是深海不同环境的广适类群。另外，两个环境中的细菌多样性存在很大差异，东太平洋沉积环境中的细菌多样性要远高于西太平洋沉积环境中的细菌多样性，推测其最可能的原因是西太平洋沉积物火山灰成分对细菌群落的影响，致使其细菌群落与东太平洋远洋粘土沉积物细菌群落产生很大差异；另外，不同洋区的环境差异也应该是造成细菌群落差异的一个重要方面。

黄东海及朝鲜海峡冰后期陆架沉积物的环境磁学研究

There are four chapters in this dissertation. The first chapter briefly synthesizes the basic theories, methods and present-day applying situation of environmental magnetism. The second chapter probes into the magnetic mineral diagenesis in the post-glacial muddy sediments from the southeastern South Yellow Sea and its response to marine environmental changes, using the muddy sediment of Core YSDP103 formed in the shelf since about 13 ka BP. The third chapter illustrates the high-resolution early diagenetic processes by investigating the rapidly deposited muddy sediments during the last 6 ka in Cores SSDP-102 and SSDP-103 from the near-shore shelf of Korea Strait. The fourth chapter presents the results of detailed rock magnetic investigation of the surface sediments from the fine-grained depositional area on the outer shelf of the East China Sea in an attempt to provide environmental magnetic evidence for the provenance of the fine-grained deposit. Core YSDP103 was retrieved in the muddy deposit under the cold eddy of the southeastern South Yellow Sea, and the uppermost 29.79 m core represents the muddy sediments formed in the shelf since about 13 ka BP. The lower part from 29.79 to 13.35 m, called Unit A2, was deposited during the period from the post-glacial transgression to the middle Holocene (at about 6 ~(14)C ka BP) when the rising sea level reached its maximum, while the upper part above 13.35 m (called Unit Al) was deposited in a cold eddy associated with the formation of the Yellow Sea Warm Current just after the peak of post-glacial sea level rise. For the the uppermost 29.79 m core, detailed investigation of rock-magnetic properties and analyses of grain sizes and geochemistry were made. The experimental results indicate that the magnetic mineralogy of the core is dominated by magnetite, maghemite and hematite and that, except for the uppermost 2.35 m, the magnetic minerals were subject to reductive diagenesis leading to significant decline of magnetic mineral content and the proportion of low-coercivity component. More importantly, ferrimagnetic iron sulphide (greigite) is found in Unit A2 but absent in Unit Al, suggesting the control of marine environmental conditions on the magnetic mineral diagenesis. Magnetic parameters show abrupt changes across the boundary between the Unit Al and A2, which reflects a co-effect of environmental conditions and primary magnetic components of the sediments on the diagenesis. Alternating zones of high and low magnetic parameters are observed in Unit A2 of Core YSDP103, which is presumably due to periodic changes of the concentration and/or grain size of magnetic minerals carried into the study area. Cores SSDP-102 and SSDP-103, two studied sediment cores from the Korea Strait contain mud sequences (14 m and 32.62 m in thickness) that were deposited during the last 6,000 years. Analyses of grain sizes and geochemistry of the cores have demonstrated that the sediments have uniform lithology and geochemical properties, however, marked down-core changes in magnetic properties suggest that diagenesis has significantly impacted the magnetic properties. An expanded view of early diagenetic reactions that affect magnetic mineral assemblages is evident in these rapidly deposited continental shelf sediments compared to deep-sea sediments. The studied sediments can be divided into four descending intervals, based on magnetic property variations. Interval 1 is least affected by diagenesis and has the highest concentrations of detrital magnetite and hematite, and the lowest solid-phase sulfur contents. Interval 2 is characterized by the presence of paramagnetic pyrite and sharply decreasing magnetite and hematite concentrations, which suggest active reductive dissolution of detrital magnetic minerals, the absolute minimum abundance of magnetite is reached at the end of this interval. Interval 3 is marked by a progressive loss of hematite with depth, and at the base of this interval, 82% to 88% of the hematite component was depleted and the bulk magnetic mineral concentration was reduced to the lowest value in the entire studied mud section. Interval 4 has an increasing down-core enhancement of authigenic greigite, which is interpreted to have formed due to arrested pyritization resulting from consumption of pore water sulfate with depth. This is the first clear demonstration from an active depositional environment for a delay of thousands of years for acquisition of a magnetization carried by greigite. This detailed view of diagenetic processes in continental shelf sediments suggests that studies of geomagnetic field behavior from such sediments should be conducted with care. Paleoceanographic and paleoclimatic studies based on the magnetic properties of shelf sediments with high sedimentation rates like those in the Korea Strait are also unlikely to provide a meaningful signature associated with syn-depositional environmental processes. The rock magnetic properties of the surface sediments from the fine-grained depositional area on the outer shelf of the East China Sea, an area surrounded by sands, are investigated with a view to providing information on the sediment provenance. Multiple magnetic parameters such as magnetic susceptibility (%), anhysteretic remanent magnetization (ARM), saturation rernanent magnetization (SIRM), coercivities of SIRM (Her), and S ratios (relative abundance of low-coercivity magnetic minerals) are measured for all 179 surface samples, and partial representative samples are examined for their magnetic hysteresis parameters, temperature-dependence of magnetic susceptibility and x-ray diffraction spectra. Our research indicates that the magnetic mineralogy is dominated by magnetite with a small amount of hematite and is primarily of pseudo-single domain (PSD) to multidomain (MD) nature with a detrital origin. In the surface sediments, the granulometry of magnetic fractions is basically independent of grain sizes of the sediment containing the magnetic grains, and the composition of magnetic minerals remains almost homogeneous, that is, with a relatively constant ratio of low to high coercivity fraction throughout the area. The magnetic concentration in the study area generally decreases to the east or southeast accompanied by magnetic-particle fining to the east or to the northeast. The geographic pattern of magnetic properties is most reasonably explained by a major source of sediment jointly from the erosion of the old Huanghe River deposit and the discharge of the Changjiang River. The rock magnetic data facilitate understanding of the transport mechanism of fine-grained sediments in the outer shelf of the East China Sea.