The population parameters of blood cockles, Tegillarca granosa in the intertidal zone of Marudu Bay, Sabah, Malaysia were investigated based on monthly length-weight frequency data (July 2017 to June 2018). A total of 279 cockle individuals with shell length and weight ranging from 27.7 mm to 82.2 mm and 13.11 g to 192.7 g were subjected to analysis. T. granosa in Marudu Bay showed a consistent moderately high condition index 4.98±0.86 throughout the year. The exponent b of the length-weight relationship was 2.6 demonstrating negative allometric growth. The estimated asymptotic length (L_∞), growth coefficient (K) and growth performance (ϕ) of the T. granosa population in Marudu Bay were estimated at 86.68 mm, 0.98 a^–1 and 3.87, respectively. The observed maximum shell length was 82.55 mm and the predicted maximum shell length was 84.44 mm with estimated maximum life span (t_max) of 3.06 years. The estimated mean lengths at the end of 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12 months of age were 21.31 mm, 31.16 mm, 39.53 mm, 46.63 mm, 52.67 mm and 57.79 mm. Total, natural, and fishing mortalities were estimated at 2.39 a^–1, 1.32 a^–1 and 1.07 a^–1. The exploitation level (E) was 0.45. Results of the current study also demonstrated that T. granosa in the Marudu Bay has two major recruitment peaks; one in March and another in October. The exploitation level revealed that natural stock of T. granosa in the Marudu Bay was approaching the maximum exploitation level. If such trend continues or demand for T. granosa is increasing, coupled with no effective fisheries management in place, possibility of the T. granosa population in the Marudu Bay to collapse is likely to elevate.

In recent years, Konosirus punctatus has accounted for a large portion in catch composition and become important economic species in the South Yellow Sea. However, the distribution of K. punctatus early life stages is still poorly understood. In this study, generalized additive models with Tweedie distribution were used to analyze the relationships between K. punctatus ichthyoplankton and environmental factors (longitude and latitude, sea surface temperature (SST), sea surface salinity (SSS) and depth), and predict distribution K. punctatus spawning ground and nursing ground, based on samplings collected in 6 months during 2014–2017. The results showed that K. punctatus’ spawning ground were mainly distributed in central and north study area (from 33.0°N to 37.0°N). By comparison, the nursing ground shifted southward, which were approximately located along central and south coast of study area (from 31.7°N to 35.5°N). The optimal models identified that suitable SST, SSS and depth for eggs were 19–26°C, 25–30 and 9–23 m, respectively. The suitable SSS for larvae were 29–31. The K. punctatus spawning habit might have changed in the past decades, which was a response to increasing SST and fishing pressure. That needs to be proved in further study. The study provides references of conservation and exploitation for K. punctatus.

Based on a hydrodynamic-ecological model, the temperature, salinity, current, phytoplankton (Chl a), zooplankton, and nutrient (dissolved inorganic nitrogen, DIN, and dissolved inorganic phosphorous, DIP) distributions in the Beibu Gulf were simulated and the nutrient budget of 2015 was quantitatively analyzed. The simulated results show that interface processes and monsoons significantly influence the ecological processes in the gulf. The concentrations of DIN, DIP, phytoplankton and zooplankton are generally higher in the eastern and northern gulf than that in the western and southern gulf. The key regions affected by ecological processes are the Qiongzhou Strait in winter and autumn and the estuaries along the Guangxi coast and the Red River in summer. In most of the studied domains, biochemical processes contribute more to the nutrient budget than do physical processes, and the DIN and DIP increase over the year. Phytoplankton plays an important role in the nutrient budget; phytoplankton photosynthetic uptake is the nutrient sink, phytoplankton dead cellular release is the largest source of DIN, and phytoplankton respiration is the largest source of DIP. The nutrient flux in the connected sections of the Beibu Gulf and open South China Sea (SCS) inflows from the east and outflows to the south. There are 113 709 t of DIN and 5 277 t of DIP imported from the open SCS to the gulf year-around.

This paper applies the narrow band Internet of things communication technology to develop a wireless network equipment and communication system, which can quickly set up a network with a radius of 100 km on water surface. A disposable micro buoy based on narrow-band Internet of things and Beidou positioning function is also developed and used to collect surface hydrodynamic data online. In addition, a web-based public service platform is designed for the analysis and visualization of the data collected by buoys. Combined with the satellite remote sensing data, the study carries a series of marine experiments and studies such as sediment deposition tracking and garbage floating tracking.

Oceanic geostrophic turbulence theory predicts significant inverse kinetic energy (KE) cascades at scales larger than the energy injection wavelength. However, the characteristics of the mesoscale variabilities associated with the inverse KE cascade in the real oceans have not been clear enough up to now. To further examine this problem, we analyzed the spectral characteristics of the oceanic mesoscale motions over the scales of inverse KE cascades based on high-resolution gridded altimeter data. The applicability of the quasigeostrophic (QG) turbulence theory and the surface quasigeostrophic (SQG) turbulence theory in real oceans is further explored. The results show that the sea surface height (SSH) spectral slope is linearly related to the eddy-kinetic-energy (EKE) level with a high correlation coefficient value of 0.67. The findings also suggest that the QG turbulence theory is an appropriate dynamic framework at the edge of high-EKE regions and that the SQG theory is more suitable in tropical regions and low-EKE regions at mid-high latitudes. New anisotropic characteristics of the inverse KE cascade are also provided. These results indicate that the along-track spectrum used by previous studies cannot reveal the dynamics of the mesoscale variabilities well.

The seasonal structure and dynamic mechanism of oceanic surface thermal fronts (STFs) along the western Guangdong coast over the northern South China Sea shelf were analyzed using in situ observational data, remote sensing data, and numerical simulations. Both in situ and satellite observations show that the coastal thermal front exhibits substantial seasonal variability, being strongest in winter when it has the greatest extent and strongest sea surface temperature gradient. The winter coastal thermal front begins to appear in November and disappears after the following April. Although runoff water is more plentiful in summer, the front is weak in the western part of Guangdong. The frontal intensity has a significant positive correlation with the coastal wind speed, while the change of temperature gradient after September lags somewhat relative to the alongshore wind. The numerical simulation results accurately reflect the seasonal variation and annual cycle characteristics of the frontal structure in the simulated area. Based on vertical cross-section data, the different frontal lifecycles of the two sides of the Zhujiang (Pearl) River Estuary are analyzed.

Using the hydrographic data obtained during two nearly simultaneous surveys in June 2015, we carried out semi-diagnostic calculations with the help of a finite element model and a modified inverse method, to study the circulation in the northern South China Sea (NSCS) during the early summer of 2015. A number of new circulation features were found. (1) In most of the observation region, a large, basin-scale anticyclonic gyre appeared south of the 50-m isobath, which contained anticyclonic eddies. One anticyclonic eddy existed from the sea surface to 50-m depth, whose center showed no tilt, while the center of another eddy tilted eastward from the sea surface to 500-m depth. In the eastern part of the observation region, which is west of the Dongsha Islands, there was a sub-basin-scale cyclonic gyre containing a cyclonic eddy whose center tilted southward from the sea surface to 200-m depth. (2) There was a cross-continental slope current (CCSC) in the area southwest of the Dongsha Islands. Its volume transport was about 2.0×10⁶ m³/s. (3) From the estimated order of magnitude of the stream function equation, the joint effect term of the baroclinity and relief (JEBAR) and β-effect term are two important dynamic mechanisms affecting the variation of the circulation in the NSCS. (4) The JEBAR, as a transport-generating term, resulted in the dynamic mechanism determining the pattern of the depth-averaged flow across the contours of potential vorticity fH^–1. Furthermore, we show that the negative values of the JEBAR were the most dominant dynamic mechanism, causing the CCSC southwest of the Dongsha Islands to deflect from the isobaths and veer toward the deep water. The CCSC around the Dongsha Islands was located further southwest during the early summer of 2015 than during the fall of 2005 (revealed by a published study), which suggests that the location of the CCSC around the Dongsha Islands may vary with season.

Based on Bayesian network (BN) and information flow (IF), a new machine learning-based model named IFBN is put forward to interpolate missing time series of multiple ocean variables. An improved BN structural learning algorithm with IF is designed to mine causal relationships among ocean variables to build network structure. Nondirectional inference mechanism of BN is applied to achieve the synchronous interpolation of multiple missing time series. With the IFBN, all ocean variables are placed in a causal network visually, making full use of information about related variables to fill missing data. More importantly, the synchronous interpolation of multiple variables can avoid model retraining when interpolative objects change. Interpolation experiments show that IFBN has even better interpolation accuracy, effectiveness and stability than existing methods.

The sensitive area of targeted observations for short-term (7 d) prediction of vertical thermal structure (VTS) in summer in the Yellow Sea was investigated. We applied the Conditional Nonlinear Optimal Perturbation (CNOP) method and an adjoint-free algorithm with the Regional Ocean Modeling System (ROMS). We used vertical integration of CNOP-type temperature errors to locate the sensitive areas, where reduction of initial errors is expected to yield the greatest improvement in VTS prediction for the selected verification area. The identified sensitive areas were northeast−southwest orientated northeast to the verification area, which were possibly related to the southwestward background currents. Then, we performed a series of sensitivity experiments to evaluate the effectiveness of the identified sensitive areas. Results show that initial errors in the identified sensitive areas had the greatest negative effect on VTS prediction in the verification area compared to errors in other areas (e.g., the verification area and areas to its east and northeast). Moreover, removal of initial errors through deploying simulated observations in the identified sensitive areas led to more refined prediction than correction of initial conditions in the verification area itself. Our results suggest that implementation of targeted observation in the CNOP-based sensitive areas is an effective method to improve short-term prediction of VTS in summer in the Yellow Sea.

Satellite-tracked Lagrangian drifters are used to investigate the transport pathways of near-surface water around the Luzon Strait. Particular attention is paid to the intrusion of Pacific water into the South China Sea (SCS). Results from drifter observations suggest that except for the Kuroshio water, other Pacific water that carried by zonal jets, Ekman currents or eddies, can also intrude into the SCS. Motivated by this origin problem of the intrusion water, numerous simulated trajectories are constructed by altimeter-based velocities. Quantitative estimates from simulated trajectories suggest that the contribution of other Pacific water to the total intrusion flux in the Luzon Strait is approximately 13% on average, much smaller than that of Kuroshio water. Even so, over multiple years and many individual intrusion events, the contribution from other Pacific water is quite considerable. The interannual signal in the intrusion flux of these Pacific water might be closely related to variations in a wintertime westward current and eddy activities east of the Luzon Strait. We also found that Ekman drift could significantly contribute to the intrusion of Pacific water and could affect the spreading of intrusion water in the SCS. A case study of an eddy-related intrusion is presented to show the detailed processes of the intrusion of Pacific water and the eddy-Kuroshio interaction.