Amino acids (AAs) and amino sugars (ASs), compounds ubiquitous to living organisms, can provide information regarding degradation states and bacterial contributions to sedimentary organic matter (SOM). However, very few studies have utilized the combination of AAs and ASs as a proxy to assess the influence of bacterial degradation on SOM in the Yellow Sea (YS). In this study, surface sediments from the YS were analyzed for AAs, ASs, total organic carbon (TOC), total nitrogen (TN), stable carbon isotope (δ¹³C), and grain size. The concentrations of AAs and ASs ranged from 3.29 to 26.65 μmol g⁻¹ and from 0.50 to 9.11 μmol g⁻¹, respectively, and together contributed 13.1% to TOC and 27.5% to TN. The concentrations of AAs and ASs were both positively correlated with the relative abundance of clay (<4 μm) (R² = 0.73 and 0.79, respectively, p < 0.01), suggesting that hydrodynamic sorting influenced the distribution of SOM in the study area. Comparisons of the degradation indices (TOC normalized yields of AAs and ratio of AAs to ASs) indicated that the SOM in the South Yellow Sea (SYS) was more degraded than that in the North Yellow Sea (NYS). Variations in the glycine/serine and glucosamine/galactosamine ratios reflected a transition from fresh phytoplankton sourced organic matter (OM) to bacterial OM. Based on the yields of muramic acid (Mur), the bacterial OM contributed 17 ± 13% and 26 ± 19% to TOC and TN, respectively. High ratios of glucosamine to Mur (GlcN/Mur) indicated that the fraction of bacterial debris in the SYS was larger than that in the NYS. This study demonstrated the importance of bacteria in regulating the source and fate of SOM in the YS.

氨基酸（AAs）和氨基糖（ASs）是活生物体普遍存在的化合物，可以提供有关降解状态和细菌对沉积有机物（SOM）的贡献的信息。但是，很少有研究利用AA和AS的组合来评估细菌降解对黄海（YS）中SOM的影响。在这项研究中，来自YS表面沉积物进行分析的AA电池，自治系统，总的有机碳（TOC），总氮（TN），碳同位素（δ ¹³ C），和晶粒尺寸。AAs和ASs的浓度范围为3.29至26.65μmolg ^-1和0.50至9.11μmolg ^-1，分别为TOC和TN贡献了13.1％和27.5％。AAS和AS的浓度均与粘土的相对丰度（<4μm）呈正相关（R ² 分别为0.73和0.79，p <0.01），表明流体动力分选影响了研究区域内SOM的分布。降解指数（TOA归一化AA的收率和AA与AS的比率）的比较表明，南黄海（SYS）的SOM降解程度高于北黄海（NYS）。甘氨酸/丝氨酸和葡萄糖胺/半乳糖胺比率的变化反映了从浮游植物来源的有机物（OM）到细菌OM的过渡。根据尿酸（Mur）的产量，细菌OM对TOC和TN的贡献分别为17±13％和26±19％。葡糖胺与Mur的高比率（GlcN / Mur）表明SYS中的细菌碎片比例大于NYS中的细菌碎片比例。这项研究证明了细菌在调节YS中SOM的来源和命运方面的重要性。