Green tides caused by the unusual accumulation of high floating Ulva prolifera have occurred regularly in the Yellow Sea since 2007. The primary source of the Yellow Sea green tides is the attached algae on the Pyropia aquaculture rafts in the Subei Shoal. Ulva prolifera and Blidingia (Italic) sp. are the main species observed on Pyropia aquaculture rafts in the Subei Shoal. We found that U. prolifera has strong buoyancy and a rapid growth rate, which may explain why it is the dominant species of green tides that occur in the China's sea area of the Yellow Sea. The growth rate of floating U. prolifera was about 20%–31% d^–1, which was much higher than Blidingia (Italic) sp. There were about 1.7 × 10⁴ t of attached algae on the Pyropia aquaculture rafts in May 2012. We found that 39% of attached algae could float when the tide rose in the Subei Shoal, and U. prolifera accounted for 63% of the floating algae. Our analysis estimated that about 4 000 t of attached U. prolifera floated into the surrounding waters of the Subei Shoal during the recycling period of aquaculture rafts. These results suggest that the initial floating biomass of large-scale green tides in the Yellow Sea is determined by the U. prolifera biomass attached to Pyropia aquaculture rafts, further impacting the scale of the green tide.

The East Sea (Sea of Japan) is a marginal, semi-closed sea in the northwestern Pacific. The Ulleung Basin area, which is located near the subpolar front of the East Sea, is known to have high primary production and good fisheries in spring season. After episodic wind-driven events during the spring of 2017, horizontal and vertical profiles of physical chemical biological factors were investigated at 29 stations located in the Ulleung Basin area. In addition, growth responses of phytoplankton communities to nutrient additions were evaluated by bioassay experiments to understand the fluctuation of phytoplankton biomass. Because of strong northwestern wind, phytoplankton biomass was scattered and upwelling phenomenon might be suppressed in this season. The phytoplankton abundances in the coastal stations were significantly higher than offshore and island stations. In contrast, the nutrient and chlorophyll a (Chl a) concentrations and the phytoplankton biomass were quite low in all locations. Bacillariophyceae was dominated group (>75.1% for coastal, 40.0% for offshore and 43.6% for island stations). In the algal bioassays, the phytoplankton production was stimulated by N availability. The in vivo Chl a values in the +N and +NP treatments were significantly higher than the values in the control and the +P treatments. Based on the field survey, the higher nutrients in coastal waters affected the growth of diatom assemblages, however, little prosperity of phytoplankton was observed in the offshore waters despite the injection of sufficient nutrients in bioassay experiments. The growth of phytoplankton depended on the initial cell density. All of results indicated that a dominant northwestern wind led to a limited nutrients condition at euphotic layers, and the low level of biomass supply from the coasts resulted in low primary production. Both supplying nutrients and introducing phytoplankton through the currents are critical to maintain the high productivity in the Ulleung Basin area of the East Sea.

Chlorophyll a (Chl a), particulate organic carbon (POC) and biogenic silica (BSi) were determined in coastal waters adjacent to the Zhujiang (Pearl) River Estuary (ZRE) during summer, in order to examine the C:Chl a ratio of phytoplankton and phytoplankton carbon in the plume-impacted coastal waters during summer, as well as to assess the relative contribution of diatoms to the phytoplankton biomass, by the regression between Chl a, POC and BSi. Our results showed that the C:Chl a ratio (g/g) of phytoplankton was high (up to 142), likely due to high light intensity and nutrient limitation. The river plume input stimulated phytoplankton growth, especially diatoms, resulting in higher relative contribution of phytoplankton carbon (55%) and diatoms (34%) to POC in the plume-impacted region​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ than those (33% and 13%) in high salinity area, respectively. Phytoplankton carbon (up to 538 μg/L) in the plume-impacted region was much higher than that (<166 μg/L) in high salinity area. Our findings were helpful to improve the biogeochemical model in coastal waters adjacent to the ZRE.

Coralline algae (CA), a type of primary calcifying producer presented in coastal ecosystems, are considered one of the highly sensitive organisms to marine environmental change. However, experimental studies on coralline algae responses to elevated seawater temperature and reduced pH have documented either contradictory or opposite results. In this study, we analysed the growth and physiological responses of coralline algae Porolithon onkodes to the elevated temperature (30.8°C) and reduced pH (7.8). The aim of this analysis was to observe the direct and combined effects, while elucidating the growth and photosynthesis in this response. It was demonstrated that the algae thallus growth rate and photosynthesis under elevated temperature were depressed by 21.5% and 14.9% respectively. High pCO₂ enhanced the growth and photosynthesis of the thallus at ambient temperature, while they were deceased when both temperature and pCO₂ were elevated. CA is among the most sensitive organisms to ocean acidification (OA) because of their precipitate high Mg-calcite. We hypothesize that coralline algae could increase their calcification rate in order to counteract the effects of moderate acidification, but offset by the effect of elevated temperature. Accordingly, our results also support the conclusion that global warming (GW) is a stronger threat to algal performance than OA. Our findings are also proposed that coralline algae may be more resilient under OA than GW.

This paper overviews research progress in observation, theoretical analysis and numerical modeling of submesoscale dynamic processes in the South China Sea (SCS) particularly during recent five years. The submesoscale processes are defined according to both spatial and dynamic scales, and divided into four subcategories as submesoscale waves, submesoscale vortexes, submesoscale shelf processes, and submesoscale turbulence. The major new findings are as follows. (1) Systematic mooring observations provide new insights into the solitary waves (ISWs) and the typhoon-forced near-inertial waves (NIWs), of which a new type of ISWs with period of 23 h was observed in the northern SCS (NSCS), and the influences of background vorticity, summer monsoon onset, and deep meridional overturning circulation on the NIWs, as well as nonlinear wave-wave interaction between the NIWs and internal tides, are better understood. On the other hand, satellite altimeter sea surface height data are used to reveal the internal tide radiation patterns and provide solid evidence for that the ISWs in the northeastern SCS originate from the Luzon Strait. (2) Submesoscale offshore jets and associated vortex trains off the Vietnam coast in the western boundary of the SCS were observed from satellite chlorophyll concentration images. Spiral trains with the horizontal scale of 15–30 km and the spacing of 50–80 km were identified.(3) 3-D vertical circulation in the upwelling region east of Hainan Island was theoretically analyzed. The results show that distribution patterns of all the dynamic terms are featured by wave-like structures with horizontal wavelength scale of 20–40 km. (4) Numerical models have been used for the research of submesoscale turbulence. Submesoscale vertical pump of an anticyclonic eddy and the spatiotemporal features of submesoscale processes in the northeastern SCS are well modeled.

We used satellite altimetry data to investigate the Kuroshio Current because of the higher resolution and wider range of observations. In previous studies, satellite absolute geostrophic velocities were used to study the spatio-temporal variability of the sea surface velocity field along the current, and extraction methods were employed to detect the Kuroshio axes and paths. However, sea surface absolute geostrophic velocity estimated from absolute dynamic topography should be regarded as the geostrophic component of the actual surface velocity, which cannot represent a sea surface current accurately. In this study, mathematical verification between the climatic absolute geostrophic and bin-averaged drifting buoy velocity was established and then adopted to correct the satellite absolute geostrophic velocities. There were some differences in the characteristics between satellite geostrophic and drifting buoy velocities. As a result, the corrected satellite absolute geostrophic velocities were used to detect the Kuroshio axis and path based on a principal-component detection scheme. The results showed that the detection of the Kuroshio axes and paths from corrected absolute geostrophic velocities performed better than those from satellite absolute geostrophic velocities and surface current estimations. The corrected satellite absolute geostrophic velocity may therefore contribute to more precise day-to-day detection of the Kuroshio Current axis and path.

Wave-current interaction and its effects on the hydrodynamic environment in the Beibu Gulf (BG) have been investigated via employing the Coupled Ocean–Atmosphere–Wave–Sediment Transport (COAWST) modeling system. The model could simulate reasonable hydrodynamics in the BG when validated by various observations. Vigorous tidal currents refract the waves efficiently and make the seas off the west coast of Hainan Island be the hot spot where currents modulate the significant wave height dramatically. During summer, wave-enhanced bottom stress could weaken the near-shore component of the gulf-scale cyclonic-circulation in the BG remarkably, inducing two major corresponding adjustments: Model results reveal that the deep-layer cold water from the southern BG makes critical contribution to maintaining the cold-water mass in the northern BG Basin. However, the weakened background circulation leads to less cold water transported from the southern gulf to the northern gulf, which finally triggers a 0.2°C warming in the cold-water mass area; In the top areas of the BG, the suppressed background circulation reduces the transport of the diluted water to the central gulf. Therefore, more freshwater could be trapped locally, which then triggers lower sea surface salinity (SSS) in the near-field and higher SSS in the far-field.

This study produced a statistical analysis of multicore eddy structures based on 23 years' altimetry data in global oceans. Multicore structures were identified using a threshold-free closed-contour algorithm of sea surface height, which was improved for this study in respect of certain technical details. Meanwhile a more accurate definition of eddy boundary was used to estimate eddy scale. Generally, multicore structures, which have two or more closed eddies of the same polarity within their boundaries, represent an important transitional stage in their lives during which the component eddies might experience splitting or merging. In comparison with global eddies, the lifetimes and propagation distances of multicore eddies were found to be much smaller because of their inherent structural instability. However, at the same latitude, the spatial scale of multicore eddies was found larger than that of single-core eddies, i.e., the eddy area could be at least twice as large. Multicore eddies were found to exhibit some features similar to global eddies. For example, multicore eddies tend to occur in the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, some western boundary currents, and mid-latitude regions around 25°N/S, the majority (70%) of eddies propagate westward while only 30% propagate eastward, and large-amplitude eddies are restricted mainly to reasonably confined regions of highly unstable currents.

In this study, the impact of oceanic processes on the sensitivity of transient climate change is investigated using two sets of coupled experiments with and without tidal forcing, which are termed Exp_Tide and Exp_Control, respectively. After introducing tidal forcing, the transient climate response (TCR) decreases from 2.32 K to 1.90 K, and the surface air temperature warming at high latitudes decreases by 29%. Large ocean heat uptake efficiency and heat storage can explain the low TCR in Exp_Tide. Approximately 21% more heat is stored in the ocean in Exp_Tide (1.10×10²⁴J) than in Exp_Control (0.91×10²⁴J). Most of the large ocean warming occurs in the upper 1 000 m between 60°S and 60°N, primarily in the Atlantic and Southern Oceans. This ocean warming is closely related to the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC). The initial transport at mid- and high latitudes and the decline in the AMOC observed in Exp_Tide are both larger than those observed in Exp_Control. The spatial structures of AMOC are also different with and without tidal forcing in present experiments. The AMOC in Exp_Tide has a large northward extension. We also investigated the relationship between AMOC and TCR suggested by previous studies using the present experiments.

This study uses the Climate Forecast System Reanalysis (CFSR) to investigate the responses of the Southern Hemisphere (SH) extratropical climate to two types of El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO)—the eastern Pacific (EP) type and the central Pacific (CP) type in different seasons. The responses are denoted by the anomalies of climate variables associated with one-standard-deviation increase in the Niño3 or Niño4 index. The results show that in austral spring the differences in the ENSO-related anomaly (ERA) patterns of atmospheric circulation between the EP ENSO period (1979–1998) and CP ENSO period (1999–2010) are mainly associated with the change in the ENSO-PSA2 relationship. Such differences affect the ERA fields of surface air temperature and mixed layer temperature, and finally result in significant differences in sea-ice concentration anomalies in the Atlantic sector. In austral summer, significant correlation exists between the variations of SAM and both of the variations of Niño3 and Niño4 in 1979–1998, while the correlation between SAM and Niño4 disappears in 1999–2010. For all seasons, the strength of the climate ERAs depend on if there are close relationship between ENSO and the major climate variation modes of the SH extratropics. For the climate variables, the ERA patterns of surface air temperature are generally controlled by surface wind anomalies and mirrored by the mixed layer temperature anomalies. The mixed layer depth anomalies are primarily modulated by surface heat flux anomalies and occasionally by anomalous wind. There are strikingly strong anomalies of surface heat flux in the autumn of 1979–1998 related to the Niño3 variation, the period when there is only significant correlation between ENSO and PSA2. There are no evidence that the SH extratropical climate variability induced by Niño3 variations are stronger in the EP-ENSO period, and that variability induced by Niño4 variations are stronger in the CP-ENSO period.