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Physical structure and phytoplankton community off the eastern Hainan coast during summer 2015

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Abstract

Based on satellite remote sensing dataset and survey data during upwelling season of 2015, the spatial structures of phytoplankton biomass and community for the first time in the eastern Hainan upwelling (EHU) and its adjacent area, the eastern Leizhou Peninsula upwelling (ELPU) were illustrated. It is found that a significant cold tongue with high salinity and low temperature along the eastern Hainan coast driven by upwelling-favorable summer monsoon. The ELPU was relative weaker than the EHU because of its wide and gentle continental slope. Due to mixing by tides and waves, DO concentration with high value (>6.0 mg/L) were almost homogenous from surface to 30 m depth at the EHU. Beneath that, low DO water (<6.0 mg/L, anoxia) were pumped upward from bottom by the upwelling. The ELPU has worse DO condition compared with the EHU where bottom DO were lower than 3.5 mg/L owing to abundant DO consumption. The phytoplankton biomass reached maximal value about 1.5 mg/m3 at 30 m depth layer rather than surface layer at the EHU indicating the impact limit of upwelling on phytoplankton growth and DO distribution. Nourished by rich nutrient input, the phytoplankton biomass at the ELPU were much higher than the EHU where the maximal value can reach about 4.0 mg/m3. The phytoplankton biomass were reduced to about 0.2–0.3 mg/m3 at the offshore areas of the EHU and ELPU which were close to the value at open sea. At the inshore of the EHU, the phytoplankton community was dominated by diatom which accounted for about 50% of phytoplankton biomass. And prokaryotes (about 40%), green algae (about 20%) and prochlorococcus (about 20%) became main species at the offshore of the EHU. At the ELPU, diatom accounted for about 80% of phytoplankton biomass followed by green algae, indicating a different ecosystem at this region compared with the EHU.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Tropical Oceanography, South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, 510301, China

    Sumin Liu & Weiqiang Wang

  2. Institute of Deep-sea Science and Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Sanya, 572000, China

    Sumin Liu, Qiang Xie, Zekai Ni, Liu Yu, Huichang Jiang, Tong Long & Hongzhou Xu

  3. Graduate School, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Sumin Liu

  4. South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510641, China

    Bo Hong

  5. Hohai University, Nanjing, 210098, China

    Guifen Wang

  6. Center for Ocean Mega-Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao, 266071, China

    Qiang Xie

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  1. Sumin Liu
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  2. Bo Hong
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Correspondence to Bo Hong or Hongzhou Xu.

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The National Key Research and Development Program of China under contract No. 2018YFC0309800; the National Natural Science Foundation of China under contract Nos 41666001, 41576006, 41976014, 41776045; the Chinese Academy of Sciences Frontier Basic Research Project under contract No. QYJC201910; the Sanya Governmental Academy-Locality S&T Cooperation Program under contract No. 2015YD28.

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Liu, S., Hong, B., Wang, G. et al. Physical structure and phytoplankton community off the eastern Hainan coast during summer 2015. Acta Oceanol. Sin. 39, 103–114 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13131-020-1668-z

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