Impacts of climatic and marine environmental variations on the spatial distribution of Ommastrephes bartramii in the Northwest Pacific Ocean

Ommastrephes bartramii is an ecologically dependent species and has great commercial values among the AsiaPacific countries. This squid widely inhabits the North Pacific, one of the most dynamic marine environments in the world, subjecting to multi-scale climatic events such as the Pacific Decadal Oscillation（PDO）. Commercial fishery data from the Chinese squid-jigging fleets during 1995-2011 are used to evaluate the influences of climatic and oceanic environmental variations on the spatial distribution of O. bartramii. Significant interannual and seasonal variability are observed in the longitudinal and latitudinal gravity centers（LONG and LATG） of fishing ground of O. bartramii. The LATG mainly occurred in the waters with the suitable ranges of environmental variables estimated by the generalized additive model. The apparent north-south spatial shift in the annual LATG appeares to be associated with the PDO phenomenon and is closely related to the sea surface temperature（SST）and sea surface height（SSH） on the fishing ground, whereas the mixed layer depth（MLD） might contribute limited impacts to the distribution pattern of O. bartramii. The warm PDO regimes tend to yield cold SST and low SSH, resulting in a southward shift of LATG, while the cold PDO phases provid warm SST and elevated SSH,resulting in a northward shift of LATG. A regression model is developed to help understand and predict the fishing ground distributions of O. bartramii and improve the fishery management.

Processes of coastal ecosystem carbon sequestration and approaches for increasing carbon sink

The oceans are the largest carbon pools on Earth, and play the role of a "buffer" in climate change. Blue carbon, the carbon(mainly organic carbon) captured by marine ecosystems, is one of the important mechanisms of marine carbon storage.Blue carbon was initially recognized only in the form of visible coastal plant carbon sequestration. In fact, microorganisms(phytoplankton, bacteria, archaea, viruses, and protozoa), which did not receive much attention in the past, account for more than 90% of the total marine biomass and are the main contributors to blue carbon. Chinese coastal seas, equivalent to 1/3 of China's total land area, have a huge carbon sink potential needing urgently research and development. In this paper, we focus on the processes and mechanisms of coastal ocean's carbon sequestration and the approaches for increasing that sequestration. We discuss the structures of coastal ecosystems, the processes of carbon cycle, and the mechanisms of carbon sequestration. Using the evolution of coastal ocean's carbon sinks in sedimentary records over geologic times, we also discuss the possible effects of natural processes and anthropogenic activities on marine carbon sinks. Finally, we discuss the prospect of using carbon sequestration engineering for increasing coastal ocean's carbon storage capacity.