Mangrove forests are under the stress of sea level rise (SLR) which would affect mangrove soil biogeochemistry. Mangrove soils are important sources of soil-atmosphere greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, including carbon dioxide (CO₂), methane (CH₄) and nitrous oxide (N₂O). Understanding how SLR influences GHG emissions is critical for evaluating mangrove blue carbon capability. In this study, potential effects of SLR on the GHG emissions were quantified through static closed chamber technique among three sites under different intertidal elevations, representing tidal flooding situation of SLR values of 0 cm, 40 cm and 80 cm, respectively. Compared with Site SLR 0 cm, annual CO₂ and N₂O fluxes decreased by approximately 75.0% and 27.3% due to higher soil water content, lower salinity and soil nutrient environments at Site SLR 80 cm. However, CH₄ fluxes increased by approximately 13.7% at Site SLR 40 cm and 8.8% at Site SLR 80 cm because of lower salinity, higher soil water content and soil pH. CO₂-equivalent fluxes were 396.61 g/(m²·a), 1423.29 g/(m²·a) and 1420.21 g/(m²·a) at Sites SLR 80 cm, SLR 40 cm and SLR 0 cm, respectively. From Site SLR 0 cm to Site SLR 80 cm, contribution rate of N₂O and CH₄ increased by approximately 7.42% and 3.02%, while contribution rate of CO₂ decreased by approximately 10.44%. The results indicated that warming potential of trace CH₄ and N₂O was non-negligible with SLR. Potential effects of SLR on the mangrove blue carbon capability should warrant attention due to changes of all three greenhouse gas fluxes with SLR.

Understanding the relative roles of local environmental effects and spatial effects on phytoplankton community is of essential importance to study the biogeography of them at regional scale. However, the determinants that driving the biogeography of phytoplankton communities in the coastal area of northern Zhejiang still remained unclear. We surveyed phytoplankton community compositions in water columns associated with environmental and spatial influences across five subzones that geographically covering this region over four seasons. Diatoms and dinoflagellates were recorded as the main dominant groups and Coscinodiscus oculs-iridis, Coscinodiscus jonesianus, and Skeletonema costatum, were identified as the major abundant species existing in all seasons. Spatially structured environmental conditions, rather than pure spatial or environmental factors, substantially shaped the biogeography of phytoplankton community, with the former mainly comprised of water temperature, dissolved oxygen, phosphate, pH, and salinity, and the latter referring to a non-negligible factor. This study was the first integrated research that combining environmental filtering with spatial factors in structuring phytoplankton communities at a complete tempo-spatial scale. Our results may facilitate to the further study of harmful algal blooms early-warning in this region.

Stomatopods are better known as mantis shrimp with considerable ecological importance in wide coastal waters globally. Some stomatopod species are exploited commercially, including Oratosquilla oratoria in the Northwest Pacific. Yet, few studies have published to promote accurate habitat identification of stomatopods, obstructing scientific management and conservation of these valuable organisms. This study provides an ensemble modeling framework for habitat suitability modeling of stomatopods, utilizing the O. oratoria stock in the Bohai Sea as an example. Two modeling techniques (i.e., generalized additive model (GAM) and geographical weighted regression (GWR)) were applied to select environmental predictors (especially the selection between two types of sediment metrics) that better characterize O. oratoria distribution and build separate habitat suitability models (HSM). The performance of the individual HSMs were compared on interpolation accuracy and transferability. Then, they were integrated to check whether the ensemble model outperforms either individual model, according to fishers’ knowledge and scientific survey data. As a result, grain-size metrics of sediment outperformed sediment content metrics in modeling O. oratoria habitat, possibly because grain-size metrics not only reflect the effect of substrates on burrow development, but also link to sediment heat capacity which influences individual thermoregulation. Moreover, the GWR-based HSM outperformed the GAM-based HSM in interpolation accuracy, while the latter one displayed better transferability. On balance, the ensemble HSM appeared to improve the predictive performance overall, as it could avoid dependence on a single model type and successfully identified fisher-recognized and survey-indicated suitable habitats in either sparsely sampled or well investigated areas.

Since 2015, green tides have been blooming in offshore waters of Qinhuangdao, with serious impacts on the local ecological environment and tourism. Ulva australis, Bryopsis plumosa, and U. prolifera are the dominant species of Qinhuangdao green tides, following a sequential succession pattern. Ulva prolifera is the dominant species, with the highest biomass and the greatest influence on the local ecological environment. To study the reason of green tide dominant species succession and U. profilera became the dominant species with the largest biomass, we compared and analyzed the growth and nutrient uptake capacity of the three algae. The results showed that temperature significantly affects the growth of the three species. Within the temperature range of the experimental setup, the optimum temperature for the growth of U. australis, B. plumosa and U. profilera is 10℃, 15℃, and 20–25℃, respectively. Combined with the temperature variation trend during green tide bloom development, we believe that temperature is the key environmental factor for the succession of the dominant species. Ulva prolifera has a higher growth rate than U. australis and B. plumosa under the same nitrate, ammonium, and phosphate levels. Significant differences in the maximum absorption rate (R_max) and R_max/K_s (the relationship between uptake rate and substrate concentration) values indicated that U. prolifera had an apparent competitive advantage over U. australis and B. plumosa regarding nutrient uptake. Therefore, the strong growth and nutrient uptake capacities of U. prolifera might be the main reason for becoming the dominant species with the largest biomass in Qinhuangdao green tides.

Climate change has affected and will continue to affect the spatial distribution patterns of marine organisms. To understand the impact of climate change on the distribution patterns and species richness of the Sciaenidae in China’s coastal waters, the maximum entropy model was used to combine six environmental factors and predict the potential distribution of 12 major species of Sciaenidae by 2050s under Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs) 2.6 and 8.5. The results showed that the average area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of the model was 0.917, indicating that the model predictions were accurate and reliable. The main driving factors affecting the potential distribution of these fishes were dissolved oxygen, salinity, and sea surface temperature (SST). There was an overall northward shift in the potential habitat areas of these fishes under the two climate scenarios. The total potential habitat areas of Larimichthys polyactis, Pennahia argentata, and Pennahia pawak decreased under both climate scenarios, while the total habitat area of Johnius belengerii, Pennahia anea, Miichthys miiuy, Collichthys lucidus, and Collichthys niveatus increased, suggesting that these might be loser and winner species, respectively. The expansion rate, contraction rate, degree of centroid change, and species richness in the potential habitats were generally more significant under RCP8.5 than RCP2.6. The mean shift rates of the potential distribution were 41.50 km/(10 a) and 29.20 km/(10 a) under RCP8.5 and RCP2.6, respectively. The changes in Sciaenidae species richness under climate change were bounded by the Changjiang River Estuary waters, with obvious north-south differences. Some waters with increased species richness may become refuges for Sciaenidae fishes under climate change. The richness and habitat area change rate of some aquatic germplasm resources will decrease, meanings that these reserves are more sensitive to climate change, and more attention should be paid to the potential challenges and opportunities for fishery managers. This study may provide a scientific basis for the management and conservation of Sciaenidae in China under climate change.

The increase of total organic carbon content of the late Oligocene−early Miocene terrigenously-dominated marine shales in the shallower depth intervals was reported in the Ying-Qiong Basin, South China Sea. The organic enriched lower Sanya Formation shales (early Miocene) have biomarker characteristics of tropical/subtropical plants, with abundant high molecular weight n-alkanes, angiosperm-derived oleanane, rearranged oleananes I, II, II, tricyclic/tetracyclic terpanes including des-A-oleanane, X, *, Y, Z, Z1 and bicadinanes W, T, T1, R. The biomarker characteristics are suggestive of larger influx of the dominant tropical/subtropical angiosperms in flora under a warming and more humid climate during depositions of the lower Sanya Formation (early Miocene) than the older Lingshui Formation (late Oligocene). The tropical/subtropical angiosperm input was thought as the prime control of terrigenous organic matter enrichment relative to the redox condition, and the coeval sea level changes and seafloor spreading in the South China Sea. Enrichment of the terrigenous organic matter in the early Miocene shales is likely in association with the coeval peak East Asian summer monsoon intensity in the South China Sea.

The geochemical signatures of fifty-four rock samples and three supplementary drill stem test (DST) oils from the Yacheng-Sanya formations in the central Qiongdongnan Basin (CQB) were analysed. Reconstruction of the early Oligocene−early Miocene (36–16 Ma) palaeovegetation and source analyses of organic matter (OM) were conducted using aliphatic biomarkers in ancient sediments and DST oils. Both the interpreted aquatic and terrigenous OM contributed to the CQB source rocks (SRs) but had varying relative proportions. The four distribution patterns derived from n-alkanes, terpanes, and steranes are representative of four OM composition models of the Yacheng-Sanya SRs, including model A, model B, model C, and model D, which were classified based on the increasing contribution from terrigenous OM relative to aquatic OM. Some terrigenous higher plant-derived biomarkers, including oleanane, des-A-oleanane, C₂₉ ααα 20R sterane, bicadinanes, the C₁₉/(C₁₉ + C₂₃) tricyclic terpane ratio, and other n-alkane-derived ratios suggest that angiosperms had increased proportions in the palaeoflora from early Oligocene to early Miocene, and the bloom of terrigenous higher plants was observed during deposition of upper Lingshui Formation to lower Sanya Formation. These findings are consistent with the incremental total organic carbon and free hydrocarbons + potential hydrocarbons (S₁ + S₂) in the lower Lingshui-lower Sanya strata with a significant enrichment of OM in the E₃l₁-N₁s₂ shales. The maturity- and environment-sensitive aliphatic parameters of the CQB SRs and DST oils suggest that all the samples have predominantly reached their early oil-generation windows but have not exceeded the peak oil windows, except for some immature Sanya Formation shales. In addition, most of the OM in the analysed samples was characterised by mixed OM contributions under anoxic to sub-anoxic conditions. Furthermore, terrestrial-dominant SRs were interpreted to have developed mainly in the Lingshui-Sanya formations and were deposited in sub-oxic to oxic environments, compared to the anoxic to sub-anoxic conditions of the Yacheng Formation.

Studies in the northern South China Sea (SCS) basement remain important for understanding the evolution of the Southeast Asian continental margin. Due to a thick cover of sediments and scarce borehole penetration, little is known about the age and tectonic affinity of this basement. In this study, an integrated study of zircon U-Pb geochronology, Hf isotopes, and whole-rock major and trace elements on seven basement granitoids from seven boreholes of Qiongdongnan Basin has been carried out. New zircon U-Pb results for these granitoids present middle-late Permian ((270.0±1.2) Ma; (253±3.4) Ma), middle to late Triassic ((246.2±3.4) Ma; (239.3±0.96) Ma; (237.9±0.99) Ma; (228.9±1.0) Ma) and Late Cretaceous ages ((120.6±0.6) Ma). New data from this study, in combination with the previous dataset, indicates that granitoid ages in northern SCS basement vary from 270 Ma to 70.5 Ma, with three age groups of 270–196 Ma, 162–142 Ma, and 137–71 Ma, respectively. Except for the late Paleozoic-Mesozoic rocks in the basement of the northern SCS, a few old zircon grains with the age of (2708.1±17) Ma to (2166.6±19) Ma provide clues to the existence of the pre-Proterozoic components. The geochemical signatures indicate that the middle Permian-early Cretaceous granitoids from the Qiongdongnan Basin are I-type granites formed in a volcanic arc environment, which were probably related to the subduction of the Paleo-Pacific Plate.

This paper examines the simplification strategy of retaining only the nonhydrostatic effect of local acceleration in a three-dimensional fully nonhydrostatic model regarding the submesoscale wave phenomenon in the ocean. Elaborate scale analysis of the vertical component of the Reynold-averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) equation was performed, confirming the rationalization of this simplification. Then, the simplification was implemented in a RANS equation-based nonhydrostatic model NHWAVE (nonhydrostatic WAVE) to make a simplified nonhydrostatic model. Numerical examples were taken to test its performance, including surface sinusoidal waves propagating on an idealized East China Sea topography, tidally induced internal lee waves and small-scale solitary waves. The results show that in a considerably wide range of nonlinear strengths, the simplified nonhydrostatic model can obtain similar results as those in the fully nonhydrostatic model, even for smaller-scale solitary waves. Nonlinearity influences the applicability of the simplification. The stronger the nonlinearity is, the worse the simplified model describes the nonhydrostatic phenomenon. In general, the simplified nonhydrostatic model can simulate surface waves better than internal waves. Improvement of computational efficiency in the simplified nonhydrostatic model is reasonable, reducing the central processing unit time duration in the fully nonhydrostatic model by 16.4%–20.6%. The specially designed algorithm based on the simplified nonhydrostatic equation can remarkably reduce the computational time.

The South Yellow Sea basin is filled with Mesozoic–Cenozoic continental sediments overlying pre-Palaeozoic and Mesozoic–Palaeozoic marine sediments. Conventional multi-channel seismic data cannot describe the velocity structure of the marine residual basin in detail, leading to the lack of a deeper understanding of the distribution and lithology owing to strong energy shielding on the top interface of marine sediments. In this study, we present seismic tomography data from ocean bottom seismographs that describe the NEE-trending velocity distributions of the basin. The results indicate that strong velocity variations occur at shallow crustal levels. Horizontal velocity bodies show good correlation with surface geological features, and multi-layer features exist in the vertical velocity framework (depth: 0–10 km). The analyses of the velocity model, gravity data, magnetic data, multi-channel seismic profiles, and drilling data showed that high-velocity anomalies (>6.5 km/s) of small (thickness: 1–2 km) and large (thickness: >5 km) scales were caused by igneous complexes in the multi-layer structure, which were active during the Palaeogene. Possible locations of good Mesozoic and Palaeozoic marine strata are limited to the Central Uplift and the western part of the Northern Depression along the wide-angle ocean bottom seismograph array. Following the Indosinian movement, a strong compression existed in the Northern Depression during the extensional phase that caused the formation of folds in the middle of the survey line. This study is useful for reconstructing the regional tectonic evolution and delineating the distribution of the marine residual basin in the South Yellow Sea basin.