The coastal system,especially for the river-influenced estuary and shelf serve as the major repository of sedimentary organic carbon(OC),is an active interface between terrestrial and oceanic environments, and plays an important role in the global biogeochemical cycles of carbon.The East China Shelf Sea(ECS)includes the Bohai Sea,Yellow Sea and East China Sea,which was directly influenced by the Yellow River(Huanghe)and Yangtze River(Changjiang).This study overviewed the recent developments of the study of this field,especially focusing on the key points of the sources,dispersal and burial of the sedimentary OC.It is found that soil-derived OC is a major contributor to the sedimentary OC,and marine primary production is the main source for the OC deposited in the shelf region.The multiproxies approach(e.g.,biomarkers),together with the statistics analysis model,could yield a more precise assessment for the sources of sedimentary OC.The shelf mud deposit areas in the ECS are the main repository of landbased OC from the Yellow River and Yangtze River.Some factors such as riverine input,sediment re-suspension and long-distance transportation,can influence the quality,fate and behavior of the terrigenous OC.The overall organic carbon storage capacity in this region is mainly sustained by the fluvial/land-based input,high phytoplankton primary productivity,convergent hydrodynamic and stable depositional settings. However,a large knowledge gap exists between the international frontier and the present research progress in ECS,and more efforts could be put on the systematic and multidisciplinary work on the landsea interaction,especially for indicating its mechanism and the relationship between the sedimentary processes and transformation of carbon components as a whole system.Based on the typical sediment source to sink property in the ECS,the future work could pay attention to the residence time and age of sedimentary OC from the drainage basin to the sea,and examine the significance of the behavior and burial of OC on the atmospheric carbon dioxide and global change.