Abstract High-resolution paleomagnetic secular variation (PSV) records bear great information of dynamics processes of the Earth’s geomagnetic field, and can be further used for inter-profile correlation and for dating sediments. However, effects of changes in the depositional environment on PSV records have not been fully determined. This study constructed Holocene PSV records for the gravity piston core (ZSQD34) obtained from the northern South China Sea. Rock magnetic and Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM) results indicate that single (SD) and PSD domain magnetites are the main carrier of the natural remanent magnetization. Comparable to the records derived from the freshwater lakes and the modeling results, we observed that direction curves from these two environments of contrasting salinity content are rather consistent. The direction curves are independent of the constructed salinity. However, the gradual increasing trend of relative intensity since about 5 kyr might be related to the decreasing sea surface salinity. Furthermore, on the centennial and millennial time scale, the relative intensity and salinity show some positive relation, suggesting a potential contribution of salinity to the paleomagnetic relative intensity recording processes.