Distribution and carbon isotope composition of alcohol compounds in Site4B sediment in the Zhujiang(Pearl) River Mouth Basin are analyzed by GC-MS (gas chromatography-mass spectrometry) and GC-IRMS (gas chromatography-isotope ratio monitoring mass spectrometry). The results show that the values of carbon preference index(9.4124.56), average chain length (28.8529.99), and the average carbon isotope of nC_(26), nC_(28), and nC_(30) aliphatic alcohol (-29.130.87, -32.981.28, and -32.731.61, respectively) indicate a source of terrestrial higher plants for nC_(26)nC_(34) aliphatic alcohols. The carbon isotope compositions of nC_(16)nC_(20) and nC24 aliphatic alcohols were substantially enriched in ~(13)C relative to nC_(26)nC_(34) aliphatic alcohols, suggesting potential source of marine microbe other than terrestrial higher plants; the negative isotope composition of nC_(22) aliphatic alcohol (-33.261.51) might indicate a potential source of the chemical autotrophic bacteria. The terrigenous inputs in the sediments are dominated by adjacent rivers. Contribution of the Taiwan Island rivers was significant since 12.7ka BP (080cm) and in the Last Glacial Maximum (102120cm), whereas those of the Taiwan Island, Luzon Arc, and Zhujiang River estuary rivers were generally not significant from 19.312.7ka BP (80102cm) and in the Pleistocene (120300cm). The marine productivity was contributed by marine microbe that effected heavily by fluctuation in seawater temperature, of which at depths of 35150cm marine-sourced alcohols was related to the seawater temperature fluctuation caused by the change in the strength of the South China Sea warm current, whereas at depths of 150300cm, it was directly related to the seawater temperature variation resulted from cold-warm climate alternation between glacial and interglacial periods.