In order to quantitatively discuss the influence of the wind velocity and the atmospheric depositions on the AS and the SCS, the time series of oceanic conditions and Chl
a concentration were produced respectively in the regions of the west AS and the west SCS (Boxes A and B in
Fig. 1). The time series for the study area indicated that Chl
a concentration, the AOT, and the wind velocity in the AS are respectively 2.0–4.0 times, 1.3–2.0 times, 1.5–2.0 times of those in the SCS, respectively. In addition, the SST in the AS is about 3.44°C less than that in the SCS. The better correlation of the Chl
a concentration with the SST was presented in both the AS and the SCS, with correlation coeficients of –0.32 and –0.48, respectively. The above correlation implied that the SST is relatively one good index of upwelling in our study area. The results also affirm the speculation in Section 4.1. Furthermore, according to the wind velocity parallel to the coastlines, we can estimate that the wind-induced offshore Ekman mass transport vertical to the coastlines in the west AS is about 2.0–3.0 times of that in the west SCS, suggesting significant supply of more nutrients-rich water into offshore regions of the AS. The regression analysis displayed also a good positive tendency between the Chl
a concentration and the wind velocity/the AOT, of which the correlation (
r=0.61,
p<0.05) between the Chl
a concentration and the wind velocity is better than that (
r=0.58,
p<0.05) between the Chl
a concentration and the AOT, suggesting that the wind velocity may also be one of the important factors inducing the high Chl
a concentration besides the AOT in the AS. It is well-known that nutrients are generally positively correlated with the Chl
a concentration in the oligotrophic oceans (
Sunda and Huntsman, 1997;
Hutchins and Bruland, 1998;
Jickells et al., 2005;
Meskhidze et al., 2005;
Yuan and Zhang, 2006). The atmospheric general circulation and the wind velocity at 850 hPa (
Fig. 7) displayed that the wind summer pattern and the processes of the atmospheric circulation with one strong southeasterly wind from Northeast Africa joining the strong anticyclonic atmosphere circulation over the west AS, illustrating further that wind can play an important role in coastal upwelling, but also in transport of the dust particles from Northeast Africa (
Singh et al., 2008). The results indicate also that the wind velocity may play more important role in the higher Chl
a concentration in the west AS. In addition, due to the lower SST in the AS being more favorable to mixing/entrainment under the influence of the same wind field, the lower SST in the AS may lead to more supply of nutrients than that the higher SST in the SCS, which may exert also certain effect on the high Chl
a concentration in the AS. And in the SCS, the wind velocity shows also good correlations with Chl
a concentration, with the correlation coefficients of 0.5 (
p<0.05). However the negative correlation between the Chl
a concentration and the AOT is not significant (
r=–0.15 (
p>0.05)), coincided with the result of
Lin et al. (2009), who thought that aerosol impact on Chl
a concentration in the region is minor and monsoon-induced upwelling is the main source to support the biological productivity, based on the monthly MODIS-derived AOT data. And previous studies (
Liu et al., 2002;
Xie et al., 2003;
Zhao and Tang, 2007) indicate also that upwelling is prevailing in summer in the west SCS. Therefore aerosol dust indexed by the AOT in summer is not important in the west SCS, and the SWV may play one vital role in the phytoplankton biomass through upwelling induced by the wind parallel to the coastlines and wind stress curls, as well as wind-induced mixing. In contrast, the more effective dust fertilizing is mainly in the AS through natural aerosol deposition, which leads to the positive relation between the AOT and the Chl
a concentration because the rainfall (<200 mm/a) is seldom in the AS all the year round (
Baumgartner and Reichel, 1975). In the future study, we will further investigate the influence of rainfall on the AOT in the SCS.