Coral Reveals a Transition in Sources of Seawater Vanadium From Submarine Groundwater Discharge to Upwelling in the Northern South China Sea

In recent decades, vanadium (V) levels in the environment have dramatically increased and will continue to rise alarmingly in the future. Conventional methods for assessing oceanic V typically only involved the collection of seawater and sediments, which significantly limited our understanding of the dynamics of oceanic V and its relationship to environment and climate. Here, the interannual temporal variations in surface seawater V levels in the northern South China Sea, were reconstructed utilizing a 137-year record of V/Ca ratios from Porites lutea coral from Xiaodonghai Bay off Sanya. We observed that anthropogenic activities had a limited impact on the V levels of surface seawater in the study area, whereas V variability exhibited significant disparities across different time periods. Precipitation-related submarine groundwater discharge (SGD) recharge was the primary driver of V variation prior to 1990, with tropical cyclones (TCs) playing a detectable role in total precipitation during this period. Conversely, changes in surface seawater V levels after 1990 were predominantly linked to increasingly intense upwelling driven by summer winds. The recharge processes in unconfined groundwater systems within the study area might generate favorable oxic and alkaline conditions, which facilitated mineral dissolution and/or desorption reactions that elevated V concentrations along the groundwater flow path, which were recorded in coral skeletal V/Ca ratios. This study confirmed the seawater V was dominated by SGD and upwelling near Sanya, providing essential evidence for comprehending the geochemical behavior of V and the impact of ocean-atmospheric climate interactions on long-term variations in seawater V levels.

Automated summary

In recent decades, vanadium (V) levels in the environment have dramatically increased. Conventional methods for assessing oceanic V levels are limited in providing a comprehensive understanding of the dynamics of oceanic V and its relationship to environment and climate. This study reconstructed the interannual variations in surface seawater V levels in the northern South China Sea using a 137-year record of V/Ca ratios from coral samples. The study revealed that anthropogenic activities had a limited impact on V levels, but V variability differed significantly across different time periods.