Abstract
Using multi-satellite remote sensing and numerical model data, we investigated the biological responses to nine powerful typhoons that affected the East China Sea (ECS) between 2010 and 2013. The spatial distribution patterns of the surface chlorophyll-a (Chl-a) in response to the passage of typhoons were quite different. Some typhoons clearly induced phytoplankton blooms in part of the surface seawater, whereas the Chl-a concentrations were not significantly altered by the other typhoons. In the case that the ocean’s precondition was similar, the pre-typhoon Chl-a concentration and transit time were the main factors that affected the post-typhoon Chl-a concentration. Besides strong vertical mixing and upwelling, the surface current change and heavy precipitation induced by the typhoons also influenced the distribution and growth of phytoplankton in surface seawater after passage of individual typhoons. In addition, the typhoons that directly affected coastal regions increased the nutrient concentrations in these areas, which influenced the occurrence of red tides in the ECS over a long time scale.
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Acknowledgments
This study was jointly funded by the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (2010CB951203), the Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality (10JC1404400), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41106098). We thank NASA’s Ocean Color Working Group for providing the MODIS data, the Physical Oceanography Distributed Active Archive Center (PO.DAAC) for GHRSST, the Goddard Earth Sciences (GES) and Distributed Active Archive Center (DAAC) for the TRMM accumulated rainfall data, and the East China Environment Monitoring website for the red tide data.
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Editor: Wolfgang Cramer.
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Wang, T., Liu, G., Gao, L. et al. Biological responses to nine powerful typhoons in the East China Sea. Reg Environ Change 17, 465–476 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-016-1025-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-016-1025-0