Using a video-corer to evaluate hydrocarbon fluxes in the northern South China Sea

Abstract:

Many natural methane seeps exist in the northern South China Sea. Researchers have often used gravity corers or piston corers to collect sediments and bottom seawater for estimating methane fluxes of these seeps. The actual sampling locations of these corers are difficult to match seeping vents detected by scientific echo sounder because of the difficulty in positioning of these corers when sampling at sea,. Thus, the hydrocarbon fluxes of the seeping vents estimated using these corers might not be representative hydrocarbon fluxes of seeping vents in the northern South China Sea. In this study, we used a real-time video multicorer to collect surface sediments and bottom seawater samples. This real-time multicorer can accurately obtain surface sediments and bottom seawater samples on hydrocarbon seeping vents. To estimate hydrocarbon diffusion fluxes of seeps in the northern South China Sea, we analyzed methane concentrations and carbon isotopes of methane in both porewater and bottom seawater. During the cruises conducted from August to December, 2014, methane fluxes in the study area ranged from 3 to 57000 μmol m⁻² d⁻¹ which are significantly higher than previously reported values (~160 μmol m⁻² d⁻¹). Besides, we have obtained some samples in the study area using real-time multicorer in 2015. These new results will be presented in the meeting. Overall, the observed result in this study suggests that the in-situ multicorer can be a suitable instrument sampling surface sediments and bottom seawater samples on hydrocarbon seeping vents.