The area of Arctic sea ice has dramatically decreased, and the length of the open water season has increased; these patterns have been observed by satellite remote sensing since the 1970s. In this paper, we calculate the net primary productivity (NPP, calculated by carbon) from 2003 to 2016 based on sea ice concentration products, chlorophyll a (Chl a) concentration, photosynthetically active radiation (PAR), sea surface temperature (SST), and sunshine duration data. We then analyse the spatiotemporal changes in the Chl a concentration and NPP and further investigate the relations among NPP, the open water area, and the length of the open water season. The results indicate that (1) the Chl a concentration increased by 0.025 mg/m³ per year; (2) the NPP increased by 4.29 mg/(m²·d) per year, reaching a maximum of 525.74 mg/(m²·d) in 2016; and (3) the Arctic open water area increased by 57.23×10³ km²/a, with a growth rate of 1.53 d/a for the length of the open water season. The annual NPP was significantly positively related to the open water area, the length of the open water season and the SST. The daily NPP was also found to have a lag correlation with the open water area, with a lag time of two months. With global warming, NPP has maintained an increasing trend, with the most significant increase occurring in the Kara Sea. In summary, this study provides a macroscopic understanding of the distribution of phytoplankton in the Arctic, which is valuable information for the evaluation and management of marine ecological environments.

Since 2015, a novel green tide has been recurring in the coastal areas of Qinhuangdao at the western coast of the Bohai Sea in China, threatening the environment and ecosystem of the Beidaihe seaside holiday resort along the coast. Micro-propagules of the green algae including gametes, spores, micro-germlings and micro-vegetative fragments play an important role in the formation of green tides. They serve as a “seed source” of green macroalgae, and their distributions could reflect and influence the “algae source” of green tides. In this study, monthly surveys in the inshore and offshore areas of the Qinhuangdao coast were conducted from April to September 2016 and in January 2017 to investigate the tempo-spatial distribution patterns and the biomass variations of the green algae micro-propagules. The obtained results show that micro-propagules were mainly distributed in the inshore areas with a significantly decreasing abundance towards offshore areas. Their biomass was highest in July and August, and lowest in winter. The areas that were affected by the green tides showed a remarkably higher abundance of micro-propagules compared to other areas. These micro-propagules could serve as the “seed” source of green tides. Their distribution patterns indicate that the green tide in the coastal areas of Qinhuangdao originated locally.

Wave energy resource assessment and trends around Indonesian’s ocean has been carried out by means of analyzing satellite observations. Wave energy flux or wave power can be approximated using parameterized sea states derived from satellite data. Unfortunately, only some surface parameters can be measured from remote sensing satellites, for example for ocean surface waves: significant wave height. Others, like peak wave period and energy period are not available, but can instead be estimated using empirical models. The results have been assessed by meteorological season. The assessment shows clearly where and when the wave power resource is promising around Indonesian’s ocean. The most striking result was found from June to August, in which about 30–40 kW/m (the 90th percentile: 40–60 kW/m, the 99th percentile: 50–70 kW/m) wave power energy on average has been found around south of the Java Island. The significant trends of wave energy at the 95% level have also been studied and it is found that the trends only occurred for the extreme cases, which is the 99th percentile (i.e., highest 1%). Wave power energy could increase up to 150 W/m per year. The significant wave heights and wave power have been compared with the results obtained from global wave model hindcast carried out by wave model WAVEWATCH III. The comparisons indicated excellent agreements.

Habitat use of the tapertail anchovy (Coilia mystus Linnaeus, 1758) from the Oujiang River Estuary and the Zhujiang (Pearl) River Estuary was studied by examining the environmental signatures of Sr and Ca in otoliths using electron probe microanalysis. Individuals from the Oujiang River had higher and varied Sr:Ca ratios (expressed as (Sr:Ca)×1 000, 3.83–13.0 average) in the otolith core regions, suggesting that they were born in brackish or sea waters, and that a freshwater habitat might not be necessary for egg hatching and larval growth. While, individuals from the Zhujiang River had lower Sr:Ca ratios (0.39–2.51 average) in the core regions, suggesting a freshwater origin. After hatching, anchovies from the Zhujiang River migrate downstream to the river estuary close to brackish water. Our results demonstrated varied habitat use for spawning during stages of early life history between the two populations, and suggested that such variations are promoting diversity of life history strategies of this species.

Adsorption kinetics of the interaction between Pt, Pd and Rh (defined here as platinum group elements, PGEs) ions and macromolecular organic compounds (MOCs, >10 kDa), including humic acid, carrageenan and bovine serum albumin, and different cutoff fractions of natural organic matter (>1 kDa and >3 kDa) obtained from seawater using centrifugal ultrafiltration devices were investigated. For a given element, all the adsorption kinetics did not reach equilibrium except the interaction between Pt and >1 kDa cutoff, and between Pd and humic acid. For all the tested MOCs, the adsorption kinetics could be divided into two stages, a rapid adsorption process in the first 8 h and the desorption stage after the first 8 h until the equilibrium. The change trend of partition coefficient (log₁₀K_d) values with experiment time was consistent with that of the kinetic curves. However, in the interaction between PGE ions and natural dissolved organic matter (NDOM), an obvious difference in the change trends of log₁₀K_d and kinetic curves was observed. It indicated that the partition behavior of PGE ions interacting with NDOM in seawater was a combined effect of different organic constituents. The adsorption and log₁₀K_d of PGEs in the >1 kDa NDOM fraction were higher and more stable than those in the >3 kDa NDOM fraction. The results also indicated that the 1–3 kDa NDOM may dominate the interaction between PGEs ions and NDOM. Moreover, no kinetic model could perfectly simulate the adsorption process. It indicated that the colloidal struction and morphology of MOCs or NDOM in seawater might be inhomogeneous. Hence, the interaction between PGE ions and organic matter in seawater was a complicated process and needs further research.

Mixing of freshwater and seawater creates the well-known salinity gradients along the estuaries. In order to investigate how phytoplankton respond to the acute salinity changes, we exposed natural phytoplankton assemblies from the Jiulong River Estuary to differential saline field water while continuously monitoring their photosynthetic performances under both indoor- and outdoor-growth conditions. When the natural cell assemblies from salinity 30 field water were exposed to series low saline field water (salinity 25, 17, 13 and 7.5), the effective Photosystem II quantum yield (ΔF/F_m′) decreased sharply, e.g., to one-fifth of its initials after 5 min exposure to salinity 7.5 field water, and then increased fast during the following 40 min and almost completely recovered after 320 min. During such an exposure process, non-photochemical quenching (NPQ) sharply increased from 0 to 0.85 within 5 min, and then decreased to nearly 0 within the following 70 min. When these cells re-acclimated to salinity 7.5 field water were exposed to series high saline field water (salinity 13, 17, 25 and 30), a similar response pattern was observed, with the decreased ΔF/F_m′ accompanied with increased NPQ, and followed by the recovery-induced increase in ΔF/F_m′ and decrease in NPQ. A similar response pattern as ΔF/F_m′ to the acute osmotic stress was also observed in the photosynthetic carbon fixation capacity according to radiocarbon (¹⁴C) incorporation. Our results indicate that estuarine phytoplankton assemblies could rapidly recover from the acute osmotic stress, implying a potential cause for their frequent blooms in coastal-estuarine waters where despite drastically varying salinity, available nutrients are abundant due to the land-derived runoffs or mixing-caused relaxations from sediments.

An improved frequency shift method is proposed to remove the flat earth phase in ATI-SAR ocean surface motion detection in this study. First, two conventional flat earth effect removal methods (i.e., the frequency shift method and the orbital parameter method) are introduced and compared. Then, two improvements to frequency shift method are suggested. In the first improvement, the phase diagram is divided into several sub-blocks to calculate the phase fringe frequency. In the second improvement, a function between the phase of land regions and position is fitted to correct the residual flat earth phase based on the phase of the land regions that tend toward zero in an along-track interferogram. It is found that the improved frequency shift method is greatly improved; and it agrees well with the orbital parameter method, and achieves similar accuracy.

Using a combination of stable isotope (¹⁵N) and radionuclide (²²⁶Ra) analyses, we examine possible controls on the interactions between melting ice and the uptake of nitrogen in the Prydz Bay during the 2006 austral summer. We find that specific rates of uptake for nitrate and ammonium correlate positively to their concentrations, thus suggesting a substrate effect. In the study area, we observe that regions along open, oceanic water have high f-ratios (nitrate uptake/nitrate+ammonium uptake), while areas near the Amery Ice Shelf have significantly low f-ratios. Further analysis reveals a negative correlation between the f-ratio and the melt water fraction, thus implying that the melting of ice plays an essential role in regulating pelagic N dynamics in the Southern Ocean (SO). Stratification, produced by melting ice, should profoundly affect the efficiency of the SO’s biological pump and consequently affect the concentration of CO₂ in the atmosphere. Results presented in this study add information to an already significant base of understanding of the controls on pelagic C and N dynamics in the SO. This provides unique insights for either interpreting past changes in geologic records or for predicting future climate change trends.

The importance of dissolved organic phosphorus (DOP) as a potential nutrient source for primary producers in marine systems has been recognized for up to eight decades, but currently, the understanding of the biogeochemistry of DOP is in its infancy. In the present study, monthly data between 2000 and 2014 were used to analyze the temporal and spatial distributions of DOP in the Mir Bay, the northern South China Sea. The DOP residence time (T_DOP) was also investigated using a simple regression analysis in combination with chlorophyll a (Chl a) measurements while excess DOP (ΔDOP), produced by the biogeochemical processes of autotrophic production and heterotrophic removal, was determined using a two-component mixing mass-balance model in combination with salinity measurements. The results showed that the DOP concentration was (0.017±0.010) mg/L higher in the surface-water compared with the bottom-water and higher in the inner Tolo Harbour and waters adjacent to Shatoujiao compared with the main zone of the bay. Although seasonal changes and annual variability in the DOP were small, the surface DOP concentration was higher in the wet season (April–September) than in the dry season (October–March) due to the impacts of seaward discharges and atmospheric deposition into the bay. Measurement and regression results showed that the DOP release rate from phytoplankton production was about 1.83 (g P)/(g Chl a) and the T_DOP was about 7 d, which implied that the DOP cycle in the bay was rapid. The ΔDOP was calculated from the model to be about 0.000 mg/L in the main zone of the bay and about 0.002 mg/L in the inner Tolo Harbour and waters adjacent to Shaotoujiao, suggesting that the autotrophic production of DOP was almost balanced by the heterotrophic removal in the main zone of the bay and dominated in the inner Tolo Harbour and waters adjacent to Shaotoujiao. In conclusion, the Mirs Bay is very productive and fairly heterotrophic.

Calanus sinicus is a calanoid copepod widely distributed in coastal waters of China and Japan, and over-summering strategies may have major impacts on their population dynamics which in turn affect local marine food web structure. The abundance, stage composition, and sex composition of the planktonic copepod C. sinicus were studied from August to October 2002 in the southern Yellow Sea to understand how its population recovers from the over-summering state. Results showed that C. sinicus had low reproduction in August due to high temperature, except in waters near the Cheju Island with rich food and moderate bottom temperature, but the reproduction rates here decreased in September–October as food availability declined. When temperature dropped in September–October, C. sinicus actively propagated in coastal shallow waters. However, reproduction rates of C. sinicus individuals inhabiting the Yellow Sea Cold Water Mass (YSCWM) remained low during the three months of the study. The percentage of C. sinicus females was high during the reproductive period, which suggests that the sex composition of adult C. sinicus may reflect whether or not the population is in the reproductive mode. Numerous fifth copepodite stage (CV) C. sinicus aggregated in the YSCWM in a suspended developmental stage during the three months of this study, and they potentially served as the parental individuals for population development when conditions became optimal for reproduction later in the year.