This note presents productivity variations for the past 30 ka in the southern Nansha area, the South China Sea, from the gravity core 17962 (7°11 ′N, 112°5′E, core length: 8 m, water depth: 1 968 m). Estimated surface productivity demonstrates that at the last glacial maximum the productivity was about 1.6 times as much as that in the Holocene, and the change may be ascribed to an increase of terrestrial nutrients as sea level lowered in the glacial time. This note presents productivity variations for the past 30 ka in the southern Nansha area, the South China Sea, from the gravity core 17962 (7 ° 11 ’N, 112 ° 5’E, core length: 8 m, water depth: 1 968 m). Estimated surface productivity demonstrates that the the last glacial maximum the productivity was about 1.6 times as much as that in the Holocene, and the change may be ascribed to an increase of terrestrial nutrients as sea level lowered in the glacial time.