Abstract
Significant variations of phosphate and silicate concentrations have been observed in seawater from selected industrial pipelines at intake depths between 400 and 710 m off the Hualien coast, eastern Taiwan, revealing a strong vertical movement of water mass in this intermediate layer. An intensive monitoring experiment was carried out, in which pipeline seawater from three land-based pumping stations and seawater collected by a research vessel were obtained and analyzed in parallel during a 2-day observation period. The results showed clearly that the changes of nutrient concentrations in both pipeline and shipboard samples followed a semidiurnal cycle. The maximum vertical displacement occurred in the 300–800 m layer with a scale as surprisingly large as 100 m, when compared with that observed in other areas. The tidal cycles for different layers may not synchronize with surface tide or each other. Empirical equations have been implemented between nutrient concentrations and temperature for the Hualien off-shore area. The equation can be used to check temperature variation of the intermediate water by measuring either phosphate or silicate in pipeline seawater.
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Acknowledgements
The project was sponsored by the Taiwan Society of Deep Ocean Water Resources Application (TW-SOWA). The field work could not have been accomplished without help from many volunteer participants including students on their internship cruise. The captain and crew of R/V Ocean Researcher 1, and the staff at three factories as listed in Table 1 are all deeply appreciated. SCP and SJ were also sponsored by the Ministry of Science and Technology (Taiwan) under grant no. 104-2611-M-002-018 and 104-2611-M-002-010. The authors would also like to express their gratitude to three anonymous reviewers for their kind and useful criticism of the manuscript. This paper is dedicated to WHL, the senior technician, who died in line of duty during Cruise ORI-1158 on Feb 22, 2017.
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Pai, SC., Jan, S., Ho, TY. et al. Using major nutrient concentrations to derive vertical movement of water masses in the coastal region of eastern Taiwan. J Oceanogr 73, 711–723 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10872-017-0427-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10872-017-0427-z