Impact of climatic change on sea surface temperature variation in Subei coastal waters,East China

Sea surface temperature （SST） variation in the Subei coastal waters, East China, which is important for the ecological environment of the Yellow Sea where Enteromorphaprolifera blooms frequently, is affected by the East Asian winter monsoon （EAWM）, El Nifio-Southem Oscillation （ENSO）, and Pacific Decadal Oscillation （PDO）. In this study, correlations between climatic events and SST anomalies （SSTA） around the Subei （North Jiangsu Province, East China） Coast from 1981-2012 are analyzed, using empirical orthogonal function （EOF） and correlation analyses. First, a key region was determined by EOF analysis to represent the Subei coastal waters. Then, coherency analyses were performed on this key region. According to the correlation analysis, the EAWM index has a positive correlation with the spring and summer SSTA of the key region. Furthermore, the Nifio3.4 index is negatively correlated with the spring and summer SSTA of the key region 1 year ahead, and the PDO has significant negative coherency with spring SSTA and negative coherency with summer SSTA in the key region 1 year ahead. Overall, PDO exhibits the most significant impact on SSTA of the key region. In the key region, all these factors are correlated more significantly with SSTA in spring than in summer. This suggests that outbreaks ofEnteromorpha prolifera in the Yellow Sea are affected by global climatic changes, especially the PDO.

Origins and transports of the low-salinity coastal water in the southwestern Yellow Sea

In the southwestern Yellow Sea there is a low-salinity and turbid coastal water,the Subei Coastal Water（SCW）.The origins of freshwater contents and thus the dissolved terrigenous nutrients in the SCW have been debated for decades.In this study,we used a well-validated numerical model to quantify the contributions of multiple rivers,i.e.,the Changjiang River in the south and the multiple Subei local rivers（SLRs） in the north,in forming this yearround low-salinity coastal water.It is found that the freshwater contents in the SCW is dominated by the Changjiang River south of 33.5°N,by the SLRs north of 34.5°N,and by both sources in 33.5°–34.5°N.Overall,the Changjiang River contributes ~70% in the dry season and ~80% in the wet season of the total freshwater contents in the SCW,respectively.Dynamics driving the Changjiang River Plume to flow northward is the tidal residual current,which can even overwhelm the wind effects in winter seasons.The residual currents turn offshore near the Old Yellow River Delta（OYRD） by the collision of the two tidal wave systems,which transport the freshwater from both sources into the interior Yellow Sea.Water age experiments show that it takes 50–150 d for the Changjiang River Plume to reach the SCW in the spring and summer seasons,thus there is a 2-month lag between the maximum freshwater content in SCW and the peak Changjiang River discharge.In the winter and autumn seasons,the low salinity in inner SCW is the remnant Changjiang River diluted water arrived in the previous seasons.