Sources and radiocarbon ages of aerosol organic carbon along the east coast of China and implications for atmospheric fossil carbon contributions to China marginal seas.

Aerosol deposition is an important mechanism for the delivery of terrestrial organic carbon (OC) to marginal seas, but OC age characteristics of aerosols are not well constrained and their contributions to sediment OC burial have not been quantified. Total suspended particle samples were collected along the east coast of China at Changdao (CD), Qingdao (QD) and Huaniao Island (HNI), and were analyzed for total organic carbon (TOC) isotopes (C and C) in order to bridge this information gap. TOC δC and ΔC values ranged from -23.