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Upward transport of iron at the west shelf edge–slope of the Okinawa Trough in the East China Sea

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Abstract

We studied the behavior of chemical substances in the upper 300 m of the water column across the continental shelf–slope interface in the East China Sea off the Okinawa Trough. The behaviors of iron, inorganic nutrients, and humic-like fluorescent dissolved organic matter were strongly influenced by the extensive water exchange between the East China Sea and the Kuroshio Current across the shelf break and slope via upwelling and frontal processes. We attributed the high humic-like fluorescent intensity at the subsurface of the shelf break and slope regions to the lateral supply of humic-like fluorescent dissolved organic matter from the shelf sediments to the outer shelf region due to the intrusion of shelf water into Kuroshio subsurface water. We found that the behavior of iron at the continental shelf–slope was remarkably different from the conservative mixing of inorganic nutrients and humic-like fluorescent dissolved organic matter. In deep and bottom waters at the shelf–slope, high total iron concentrations, which were closely related to water transmittance, possibly resulted from the swept transport of iron-rich resuspended sediments over the shelf floor from the slope by the invading Kuroshio Intermediate Water close to the bottom.

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Acknowledgements

We wish to thank the scientists, technicians, captain, and crew of the T/S Oshoro-Maru of the Faculty of Fisheries, Hokkaido University for their support in the field observations. Thanks are also extended to two anonymous reviewers for their constructive and helpful comments on this work. A part of this study was supported by Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan (no. 22510001).

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  1. Faculty of Fisheries Sciences, Hokkaido University, 3-1-1 Minato, Hakodate, Hokkaido, 041-8611, Japan

    Ryohei Sasayama, Nanako Hioki, Yuichiroh Morita, Yutaka Isoda, Keiri Imai, Atsushi Ooki & Kenshi Kuma

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  1. Ryohei Sasayama
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  2. Nanako Hioki
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  3. Yuichiroh Morita
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  4. Yutaka Isoda
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  6. Atsushi Ooki
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  7. Kenshi Kuma
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Correspondence to Kenshi Kuma.

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Sasayama, R., Hioki, N., Morita, Y. et al. Upward transport of iron at the west shelf edge–slope of the Okinawa Trough in the East China Sea. J Oceanogr 74, 367–379 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10872-018-0468-y

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