Provenance Evolution Since the Middle Pleistocene in the Western Bohai Sea, North China: Integrated Rare Earth Element Geochemistry and Sedimentological Records

Despite extensive research on sediment provenance in the Bohai Sea (BS), a significant knowledge gap persists concerning long-term provenance evolution, particularly in the western BS since the Middle Pleistocene. This shortcoming limits reconstructions of paleoenvironmental evolution and its interplay with climatic variability and sea-level fluctuations. This study presents integrated Rare Earth Element (REE) geochemical and sedimentological analyses of sediments from core DZQ01 in the western BS. The mean ΣREE concentration of 178.78 μg/g is characterized by pronounced light REE (LREE) enrichment relative to heavy REE (HREE). Chondrite- and upper continental crust (UCC)-normalized patterns exhibit distinct negative Eu anomalies, variable Ce anomalies, marked LREE enrichment, and pronounced LREE/HREE fractionation. Grain size exerts the dominant control on REE distribution, whereas the weak correlation between HREE fractionation parameter indices (e.g., Gd/Yb) and redox-sensitive proxies (e.g., δEuUCC and δCeUCC) confirms their fidelity as provenance indicators. When integrated with the δEuUCC-δCeUCC diagram, discriminant functions, and paleoenvironmental proxies (Rb/Sr and Mg/Ca ratios), the data indicate that, during interglacial highstands, the Yellow River (YR) was the principal source, delivering fine-grained terrigenous material from the Loess Plateau and thereby elevating REE concentrations. Conversely, glacial lowstands shifted the depositional environment to subaerial conditions, with the YR, Hai River, and Luan River supplying a coarse-fine admixture. Multi-river provenance and dilution by coarse detritus collectively lowered REE concentrations during these intervals.

• Publication year

  2025

• Venue

  Journal of Marine Science and Engineering

• Publication date

  2025-08-26

• Fields of study

  Not labeled

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.3390/jmse13091632
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

• Extreme negative Eu anomalies in peraluminous granites of South China: implications for extensive fluid extraction

  2025cited by this paper
• Paleoenvironmental evolution and East Asian monsoon records through three stages of paleochannels since the mid-pleistocene in the Western Bohai Sea, North China

  2024cited by this paper
• Geochemistry and Mineralogy of Upper Paleozoic Coal in the Renjiazhuang Mining District, Northwest Ordos Basin, China: Evidence for Sediment Sources, Depositional Environment, and Elemental Occurrence

  2024cited by this paper
• The Early Solar System and Its Meteoritical Witnesses

  2024cited by this paper
• Spatial–temporal variations of sediment transport rate and driving factors in Shule River Basin, northwest China

  2024cited by this paper
• Chronology of core sediments from the south coastal Bohai Sea of eastern Asia and its implications for sedimentary history

  2024cited by this paper
• Developing sediment provenance discrimination tracers using major elements in East China Sea mud deposits

  2023cited by this paper
• Identification of three stages of paleochannels and main source analysis beginning in the middle Pleistocene in the western Bohai sea in north China

  2023cited by this paper
• Application of Eu anomaly in Geology

  2023cited by this paper
• Sedimentary Ce anomalies: secular change and implications for paleoenvironmental evolution

  2022cited by this paper
• Sedimentary records and implications for the evolution of sedimentary environments inferred from BH1302 during the late Quaternary in the Bohai Sea, China

  2022cited by this paper
• Paleoenvironmental changes and East Asian winter monsoon evolution: evidence from coastal sedimentary sequence of the Last Glacial in the Shandong Peninsula, China

  2022cited by this paper
• Advances in the Fate of Rare Earth Elements, REE, in Transitional Environments: Coasts and Estuaries

  2022cited by this paper
• Dominant Role of Sea Level on the Sedimentary Environmental Evolution in the Bohai and Yellow Seas Over the Last 1 Million Years

  2021cited by this paper
• The sedimentary succession of the last 2.25 Myr in the Bohai Strait: Implications for the Quaternary paleoenvironmental evolution of the Bohai Sea

  2021cited by this paper
• Provenance and weathering of sediments in the deep basin of the northern South China Sea during the last 38 kyr

  2021cited by this paper
• Geochemical composition of sediments in the Liao River Estuary and implications for provenance and weathering

  2021cited by this paper
• Evolution of mean ocean temperature in Marine Isotope Stages 5-4

  2021cited by this paper
• Sea-level and climate signatures recorded in orbitally-forced continental margin deposits over the last 1 Myr: New perspectives from the Bohai Sea

  2020cited by this paper
• Distribution of rare earth elements in surface sediments of the western Sunda Shelf: Constraints from sedimentology and mineralogy

  2020cited by this paper
• The causes of sea-level rise since 1900

  2020cited by this paper
• Climate and human battle for dominance over the Yellow River's sediment discharge: From the Mid-Holocene to the Anthropocene

  2020cited by this paper
• Source tracing of rare earth elements: A case study of core 07 on the southern coast of Laizhou Bay

  2017cited by this paper
• Sediment accumulation and budget in the Bohai Sea, Yellow Sea and East China Sea

  2017cited by this paper
• Persistent effects of the Yellow River on the Chinese marginal seas began at least ~880 ka ago

  2017cited by this paper
• Sedimentary environment and paleo-tidal evolution of the eastern Bohai Sea, China since the last glaciation

  2017cited by this paper
• Sedimentary evolution during the last ~ 1.9 Ma near the western margin of the modern Bohai Sea

  2016cited by this paper
• Sedimentary architecture of the Bohai Sea China over the last 1 Ma and implications for sea-level changes

  2016cited by this paper
• Distribution and sources of organic matter in surface sediments of Bohai Sea near the Yellow River Estuary, China

  2015cited by this paper
• Paleo-megalake termination in the Quaternary: Paleomagnetic and water-level evidence from south Bohai Sea, China

  2015cited by this paper
• Rare earth elements in surface sediments of a marine coast under heavy anthropogenic influence: The Bohai Bay, China

  2015cited by this paper
• Provenance discrimination of last deglacial and Holocene sediments in the southwest of Cheju Island, East China Sea

  2015cited by this paper
• Lithological distribution of rare earth elements in automorphic and alluvial soils in the Bregalnica river basin

  2015cited by this paper
• Fluvial system development and subsequent marine transgression in Yellow River (Huanghe) delta and its adjacent sea regions during last glacial maximum to early Holocene

  2014cited by this paper
• The Last Interglacial–Glacial cycle (MIS 5–2) re-examined based on long proxy records from central and northern Europe

  2014cited by this paper
• Paleomagnetic and astronomical dating of sediment core BH08 from the Bohai Sea, China: Implications for glacial–interglacial sedimentation

  2014cited by this paper
• Precipitation in the Yellow River drainage basin and East Asian monsoon strength on a decadal time scale

  2012cited by this paper
• Late Quaternary linkage of sedimentary records to three astronomical rhythms and the Asian monsoon

  2012cited by this paper
• Fraction characteristics of rare earth elements in the surface sediment of Bohai Bay, North China

  2012cited by this paper
• Recent changes of sediment flux to the western Pacific Ocean from major rivers in East and Southeast Asia

  2011cited by this paper
• Recent changes in sediment delivery by the Huanghe (Yellow River) to the sea: Causes and environmental implications in its estuary

  2010cited by this paper
• Environmental geochemistry reflected by rare earth elements in Bohai Bay (North China) core sediments.

  2010cited by this paper
• Provenance Study of Sediments in Core NT2 of the South Yellow Sea

  2010cited by this paper
• Distributions of rare earth elements in sediments from Core NT1 of the South Yellow Sea and their provenance discrimination

  2009cited by this paper
• REE geochemistry of fine-grained sediments from major rivers around the Yellow Sea

  2009cited by this paper
• Sedimentary changes during the Holocene in the Bohai Sea and its paleoenvironmental implication

  2008cited by this paper
• Geochemistry of Rare Earth Elements and Origin of Positive Europium Anomaly in Miocene-Oligocene Lacustrine Carbonates from Tuotuohe Basin of Tibetan Plateau

  2008cited by this paper
• The Phanerozoic Record of Global Sea-Level Change

  2005cited by this paper
• The rare earth element compositions of the Changjiang (Yangtze) and Huanghe (Yellow) river sediments

  2002cited by this paper
• Geochemical Characteristics of Rare Earth Elements of Sediment Cores from the Central South Yellow Sea

  2002cited by this paper
• Thermal history and tectonic subsidence of the Bohai Basin, northern China: a Cenozoic rifted and local pull-apart basin

  2001cited by this paper
• The development of middle rare earth element enrichments in freshwaters: weathering of phosphate minerals

  2001cited by this paper
• East Asian monsoon climate during the Late Pleistocene: high-resolution sediment records from the south China Sea

  1999cited by this paper
• A Role for the Tropical Pacific

  1998cited by this paper
• Pliocene stable isotope stratigraphy of site 846

  1995cited by this paper
• The geochemical evolution of the continental crust

  1995cited by this paper
• Heavy-Mineral Assemblages of Continental Margins as Indicators of Plate-Tectonic Environments

  1993cited by this paper
• Another look at rare earth elements in shales

  1991cited by this paper
• Rare earth elements in river waters

  1988cited by this paper
• Rare-earth element and mineralogic changes in Holocene soil and stream sediment: A case study in the Wet Mountains, Colorado, U.S.A.

  1987cited by this paper
• Sediment discharge of the Yellow River (China) and its effect on the sedimentation of the Bohai and the Yellow Sea

  1986cited by this paper
• Rare earth element distributions among minerals in a granodiorite and their petrogenetic implications

  1983cited by this paper
• REE geochemistry of sea-floor sediments of the continental shelf of the East China Sea

  1983cited by this paper
• Chemical processes affecting alkalis and alkaline earths during continental weathering

  1980cited by this paper
• Fine structures of mutually normalized rare-earth patterns of chondrites

  1973cited by this paper

• No citing papers are available for this paper.