Coastal wetlands such as salt marshes and mangroves provide important protection against stormy waves. Accurate assessments of wetlands’ capacity in wave attenuation are required to safely utilize their protection services. Recent studies have shown that tidal currents have a significant impact on wetlands’ wave attenuation capacity, but such impact has been rarely considered in numerical models, which may lead to overestimation of wave attenuation in wetlands. This study modified the SWAN (Simulating Waves Nearshore) model to account for the effect of accompanying currents on vegetation-induced wave dissipation. Furthermore, this model was extended to include automatically derived vegetation drag coefficients, spatially varying vegetation height, and Doppler Effect in combined current-wave flows. Model evaluation against an analytical model and flume data shows that the modified model can accurately simulate wave height change in combined current-wave flows. Subsequently, we applied the new model to a mangrove wetland on Hailing Island in China with a special focus on the effect of currents on wave dissipation. It is found that the currents can either increase or decrease wave attenuation depending on the ratio of current velocity to the amplitude of the horizontal wave orbital velocity, which is in good agreement with field observations. Lastly, we used Hailing Island site as an example to simulate wave attenuation by vegetation under hypothetical storm surge conditions. Model results indicate that when currents are 0.08–0.15 m/s and the incident wave height is 0.75–0.90 m, wetlands’ wave attenuation capacity can be reduced by nearly 10% compared with pure wave conditions, which provides implications for critical design conditions for coastal safety. The obtained results and the developed model are valuable for the design and implementation of wetland-based coastal defense. The code of the developed model has been made open source, in the hope to assist further research and coastal management.

With the improvements in the density and quality of satellite altimetry data, a high-precision and high-resolution mean sea surface model containing abundant information regarding a marine gravity field can be calculated from long-time series multi-satellite altimeter data. Therefore, in this study, a method was proposed for determining marine gravity anomalies from a mean sea surface model. Taking the Gulf of Mexico (15°–32°N, 80°–100°W) as the study area and using a removal-recovery method, the residual gridded deflections of the vertical (DOVs) are calculated by combining the mean sea surface, mean dynamic topography, and XGM2019e_2159 geoid, and then using the inverse Vening-Meinesz method to determine the residual marine gravity anomalies from the residual gridded DOVs. Finally, residual gravity anomalies are added to the XGM2019e_2159 gravity anomalies to derive marine gravity anomaly models. In this study, the marine gravity anomalies were estimated with mean sea surface models CNES_CLS15MSS, DTU21MSS, and SDUST2020MSS and the mean dynamic topography models CNES_CLS18MDT and DTU22MDT. The accuracy of the marine gravity anomalies derived by the mean sea surface model was assessed based on ship-borne gravity data. The results show that the difference between the gravity anomalies derived by DTU21MSS and CNES_CLS18MDT and those of the ship-borne gravity data is optimal. With an increase in the distance from the coast, the difference between the gravity anomalies derived by mean sea surface models and ship-borne gravity data gradually decreases. The accuracy of the difference between the gravity anomalies derived by mean sea surface models and those from ship-borne gravity data are optimal at a depth of 3–4 km. The accuracy of the gravity anomalies derived by the mean sea surface model is high.

The Bohai Sea (BS) is the unique semi-closed inland sea of China, characterized by degraded water quality due to significant terrestrial pollution input. In order to improve its water quality, a dedicated action named “Uphill Battles for Integrated Bohai Sea Management” (UBIBSM, 2018–2020) was implemented by the Chinese government. To evaluate the action effectiveness toward water quality improvement, variability of the satellite-observed water transparency (Secchi disk depth, Z_SD) was explored, with special emphasis on the nearshore waters (within 20 km from the coastline) prone to terrestrial influence. (1) Compared to the status before the action began (2011–2017), majority (87.3%) of the nearshore waters turned clear during the action implementation period (2018–2020), characterized by the elevated Z_SD by 11.6% ± 12.1%. (2) Nevertheless, the improvement was not spatially uniform, with higher Z_SD improvement in provinces of Hebei, Liaoning, and Shandong (13.2% ± 16.5%, 13.2% ± 11.6%, 10.8% ± 10.2%, respectively) followed by Tianjin (6.2% ± 4.7%). (3) Bayesian trend analysis found the abrupt Z_SD improvement in April 2018, which coincided with the initiation of UBIBSM, implying the water quality response to pollution control. More importantly, the independent statistics of land-based pollutant discharge also indicated that the significant reduction of terrestrial pollutant input during the UBIBSM action was the main driver of observed Z_SD improvement. (4) Compared with previous pollution control actions in the BS, UBIBSM was found to be the most successful one during the past 20 years, in terms of transparency improvement over nearshore waters. The presented results proved the UBIBSM-achieved remarkable water quality improvement, taking the advantage of long-term consistent and objective data record from satellite ocean color observation.

The influence of Typhoon Kalmaegi on internal waves near the Dongsha Islands in the northeastern South China Sea was investigated using mooring observation data. We observed, for the first time, that the phenomenon of regular variation characteristics of the 14-d spring-neap cycle of diurnal internal tides (ITs) can be regulated by typhoons. The diurnal ITs lost the regular variation characteristics of the 14-d spring-neap cycle during the typhoon period owing to the weakening of diurnal coherent ITs, represented by O₁ and K₁, and the strengthening of diurnal incoherent ITs. Results of quantitative analysis showed that during the pre-typhoon period, time-averaged modal kinetic energy (sum of Modes 1–5) of near-inertial internal waves (NIWs) and diurnal and semidiurnal ITs were 0.62 kJ/m², 5.66 kJ/m², and 1.48 kJ/m², respectively. However, during the typhoon period, the modal kinetic energy of NIWs increased 5.11 times, mainly due to the increase in high-mode kinetic energy. At the same time, the modal kinetic energy of diurnal and semidiurnal ITs was reduced by 68.9% and 20%, respectively, mainly due to the decrease in low-mode kinetic energy. The significantly reduced diurnal ITs during the typhoon period could be due to: (1) strong nonlinear interaction between diurnal ITs and NIWs, and (2) a higher proportion of high-mode diurnal ITs during the typhoon period, leading to more energy dissipation.

The current velocity observation of LADCP (Lowered Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler) has the advantages of a large vertical range of observation and high operability compared with traditional current measurement methods, and is being widely used in the field of ocean observation. Shear and inverse methods are now commonly used by the international marine community to process LADCP data and calculate ocean current profiles. The two methods have their advantages and shortcomings. The shear method calculates the value of current shear more accurately, while the accuracy in an absolute value of the current is lower. The inverse method calculates the absolute value of the current velocity more accurately, but the current shear is less accurate. Based on the shear method, this paper proposes a layering shear method to calculate the current velocity profile by “layering averaging”, and proposes corresponding current calculation methods according to the different types of problems in several field observation data from the western Pacific, forming an independent LADCP data processing system. The comparison results have shown that the layering shear method can achieve the same effect as the inverse method in the calculation of the absolute value of current velocity, while retaining the advantages of the shear method in the calculation of a value of the current shear.

Liver is characteristic of all vertebrates. As a critical hub for many physiological processes including metabolism, innate immunity, protein synthesis and detoxification, its evolutionary origin was largely underappreciated in history, and only received due attention in recent decades. It has been suggested by morphological, ultrastructural and immunohistochemical studies that the hepatic caecum of amphioxus is homologous to the liver of vertebrate species. Molecular biology studies demonstrated that amphioxus hepatic caecum expresses plenty of vertebrate liver-specific genes. Our functional studies revealed significant similarities between amphioxus hepatic caecum and vertebrate liver. We also found that the functions of hepatic caecum are subjected to the regulation of pituitary hormones just as the liver does. These provide solid evidences supporting the notion that the hepatic caecum is the homologue of liver, which may represent the first stage in chordate evolution, laying a foundation for the subsequent formation of the liver as we know it in vertebrates. Further studies on the specification and morphogenesis of hepatic caecum in amphioxus will shed more lights on the origin and evolution of vertebrate liver.

The chemical diversity of scleractinian corals is closely related to their physiological, ecological, and evolutionary status, and can be influenced by both genetic background and environmental variables. To investigate intraspecific variation in the metabolites of these corals, the metabolomes of four species (Pocillopora meandrina, Seriatopora hystrix, Acropora formosa, and Fungia fungites) from the South China Sea were analyzed using untargeted mass spectrometry-based metabolomics. The results showed that a variety of metabolites, including amino acids, peptides, lipids, and other small molecules, were differentially distributed among the four species, leading to their significant separation in principal component analysis and hierarchical clustering plots. The higher content of storage lipids in branching corals (P. meandrina, S. hystrix, and A. formosa) compared to the solitary coral (F. fungites) may be due to the high densities of zooxanthellae in their tissues. The high content of aromatic amino acids in P. meandrina may help the coral protect against ultraviolet damage and promote growth in shallow seawater, while nitrogen-rich compounds may enable S. hystrix to survive in various challenging environments. The metabolites enriched in F. fungites, including amino acids, dipeptides, phospholipids, and other small molecules, may be related to the composition of the coral’s mucus and its life-history, such as its ability to move freely and live solitarily. Studying the chemical diversity of scleractinian corals not only provides insight into their environmental adaptation, but also holds potential for the chemotaxonomy of corals and the discovery of novel bioactive natural products.

Single-species management ignores the interactions between species, and ecosystem-based fisheries management (EBFM) has become a main method to fisheries management. Understanding food web structures and species interactions is essential for the implementation of EBFM and maintenance of ecosystem functions. Overfishing is one of the main reasons behind the depletion, which could even lead to the depletion of some target species in local areas. So understanding the impacts of species depletion on food web structures is important for the implementation of EBFM. The impacts of species depletion can be transmitted through the food web and cause the local extinction of both target and non-target species. In this study, topological network analysis was applied to examine the impacts of species depletion on the food web structure of Haizhou Bay. Results showed that fine crayfish Leptochela gracilis, squid Loligo sp., and Japanese snapping shrimp Alpheus japonicus have the highest numbers of outgoing links (48, 32 and 31 respectively); thus, these species may be considered key prey species. Whitespotted conger Conger myriaster, fat greenling Hexagrammos otakii, and bluefin gurnard Chelidonichthys kumu were key predators with the highest number of incoming links (37, 36 and 35 respectively). The competition graphs derived from the Haizhou Bay food web were highly connected (more than 40% predators sharing over 10 common prey species), and showed close trophic interaction between high trophic level fishes. Simulation analysis showed that the food web structure has small changes to the depletion of species in a highly complex food web. The most-connected target species did not necessarily indicate high structural importance; however, some species with low connectivity may demonstrate stronger trophic interactions and play important ecological roles in the food web. But most species were more sensitive to the depletion of the most-connected target species than other target species (for instance, for zooplankton, closeness centrality 13.876 in D6, but closeness centrality 82.143 in original food web). Therefore, EBFM should focus on the most-connected target species, but also on those species with few but strong links and feeding relationships in the food web.

The sea cucumber Apostichopus japonicus plays important roles in marine benthic ecosystem as environmental cleaners, and it is the important aquaculture species in China. High water temperature poses critical threat for the survival of A. japonicus, which has resulted in extensive death in summer. To explore the genes expression profiles under different levels of heat stress, the high-throughput RNA-seq was applied in this study. Our results revealed a total of 1371, 1225 and 1408 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in 26℃ for 6 h, 26℃ for 48 h and 30℃ for 6 h respectively in comparison with Control group. The pathway analysis suggested “Protein processing in endoplasmic reticulum (ER)” was significantly enriched in all these heat stress (HS) treatment groups. The expression results of key DEGs in this pathway (Hsp70, Derlin, NEF, PDI, GPR94 and ERP57) by qRT-PCR was in accordance with the RNA-seq data. The subcluster analysis of DEGs revealed that a variety of heat shock proteins (HSPs) and calcium ion binding proteins had an obvious up-regulated expression in 26℃ for 6 h, comparatively low expression in 26℃ for 48 h, and the highest expression in 30℃ for 6 h. The other DEGs subcluster, consisting of critical components of extracellular matrix (ECM) and a subset of peptidases and proteases, showed significantly rising tendency in 30℃ for 6 h. Additionally, the expression of matrix metalloproteases (MMP1, MMP16 and MMP19) was prominently affected by HS, and peaked in 30℃ for 6 h. This study provides a series of candidate genes for further study about heat shock response in A. japonicus, especially genes associated with protein processing in ER and regulation of ECM, which also offers new insights into cellular homeostasis under stressful conditions in marine invertebrates.

The Yuhuang hydrothermal field (YHF) is located between the Indomed and Gallieni fracture zones near the top of the off-axis slope on the south rift wall of Segment 29 on the ultraslow Southwest Indian Ridge (SWIR). Previous studies have shown that sulfides in the YHF formed during different mineralization episodes and the YHF has the greatest potential for the formation of large-scale seafloor massive sulfide deposits. However, the sulfide chronology and hydrothermal activity of the YHF remain poorly constrained. In this study, mineralogical analyses and ²³⁰Th/U dating were performed. Hydrothermal activity may start about (35.9 ± 2.3) ka from the southwest part of the YHF and may cease about (708 ± 81) a ago from the northeast part of the YHF. The 74 nonzero chronological data from hydrothermal sulfide samples provide the first quantitative characterization of the spatial and temporal history along the SWIR. Hydrothermal activity in the SWIR has been relatively active over the past 20 ka. In contrast, between 40 ka and 100 ka, hydrothermal activity was relatively infrequently and short in duration. The maximum activity occurred at 15–11 ka, 9–7 ka, 6–0.2 ka. There was a slight positive correlation between the maximal age and estimated surface area or estimated tonnage. The minimum mass accumulation rate of YHF is about 278 t/a, which is higher than most HFs related to ultramafic systems. The ultraslow spreading SWIR has the greatest potential to form large-scale seafloor massive sulfides (SMS) deposits. The results of this study provide new insights into the metallogenic mechanism of hydrothermal sulfides along ultraslow-spreading ridges.