South China Sea (SCS) sediments have multiple sources. The quantitative assessment of the potential sources is crucial to understanding the source-to-sink transport processes in the SCS. In this study, 1987 surface sediments were collected from the entire SCS (excluding the Gulf of Thailand). Major elements were measured, and the co-occurrence relationships among the major elements and grain sizes were investigated by utilizing network analysis. Positive matrix factorization (PMF) was used for the identification of potential sources and the quantitative assessment of their relative contributions. Only nine elements (SiO₂, Al₂O₃, Fe₂O₃, CaO, MgO, K₂O, Na₂O, TiO₂, and loss on ignition (LOI)) were chosen for the PMF analysis. The calculated signal-to-noise ratios of MnO and P₂O₅ were extremely low, making these two elements unsuitable for analysis. Four potential sources were identified from the combined PMF factor profiles and factor contributions, representing a northern and western terrigenous source, a southeastern terrigenous source, a biogenic carbonate source, and a source of sandy sediment on the shelf. The PMF factor profiles correspond to the four communities detected based on the co-occurrence relationships. These results support the validity of the four-factor PMF model. In addition, the spatial trends of the relative contributions of terrigenous elements (TiO₂, Fe₂O₃, Al₂O₃, K₂O, and MgO) are comparable to the pattern of the oceanic currents in the SCS. Therefore, the transport of the terrigenous elements in the SCS is controlled by hydrodynamic conditions.

南海（SCS）沉积物有多种来源。潜在来源的定量评估对于理解SCS中的源到汇运输过程至关重要。在这项研究中，1987年从整个南海（不包括泰国湾）收集了地表沉积物。测量主要元素，并利用网络分析研究主要元素与晶粒尺寸之间的共现关系。正矩阵分解（PMF）用于识别潜在来源并定量评估其相对贡献。只有九种元素（SiO ₂，Al ₂ O ₃，Fe ₂ O ₃，CaO，MgO，K ₂ O，Na ₂选择O，TiO ₂和灼烧损失（LOI）进行PMF分析。MnO和P ₂ O ₅的信噪比极低，这两个元素不适合分析。从组合的PMF因子分布图和因子贡献中确定了四个潜在来源，分别代表北部和西部的陆源，东南的陆源，生物碳酸盐源以及陆架上的沙质沉积物。PMF因子配置文件对应于基于共现关系检测到的四个社区。这些结果支持四因素PMF模型的有效性。此外，陆源元素（TiO ₂，Fe₂ O ₃，Al ₂ O ₃，K ₂ O和MgO）与SCS中洋流的模式相当。因此，SCS中陆源元素的传输受流体动力条件控制。