Effects of an artificial reef system on demersal nekton assemblages in Xiangshan Bay, China

In 2012,an artificial reef system was deployed in Xiangshan Bay,China,to enhance its fishery resources. To determine the effect of the artificial reef system on the demersal nekton assemblages,a beforeafter-control-impact study design was applied. Comparisons of assemblages from impact and control habitats revealed that the assemblage in the impact area had a gradual response to reef deployment. The assemblages in the impact and control areas changed in different ways after reef deployment. During the study period,total biomass,species richness and average body weight in the control area remained relatively stable,whereas there were significant increases in these indicators in the impact area. Responses to the reefs differed among nekton species,inducing assemblage succession in the reefs post-deployment. Sparus macrocephalus and Cynoglossus abbreviat us benefited most from reef deployment. Conversely,smallsized shrimp Palaemon gravieri showed a progressive decrease in biomass following reef deployment. Overall,the artificial reef system diversified the demersal nekton assemblage,enhanced the total biomass,and increased the proportion of large-sized species.

Spatio-temporal distribution of net-collected phytoplankton community and its response to marine exploitation in Xiangshan Bay

To explore the spatial-temporal distribution of the phytoplankton community and evaluate the combined effects of marine resource exploitation, net-collected phytoplankton and physical-chemical parameters were investigated in the Xiangshan Bay during the four seasons of 2010. A total of eight phyla, 97 genera, and 310 species were found, including 232 diatom species, 45 dinoflageUate species and 33 other taxa. The phytoplankton abundances presented a significant （P〈0.001） seasonal difference with the average of 60.66x104 cells/m3. Diatoms （mainly consisting of Coscinodiscus jonesianus, Cerataulina pelagica, Skeletonema costatum, and genus Chaetoceros） dominated the phytoplankton assemblage in all seasons. We found great spatio-temporal variation in community composition based on the multidimensional scaling and similarity analysis. Canonical correspondence analysis show that temperature, nutrition, illumination, and salinity were the main variables associated with microalgal assemblage. Compared with the previous studies, an increase in phytoplankton abundance and change in the dominant species coincided with increased exploitation activities in this bay （e.g. operation of coastal power plants, intensive mariculture, tidal fiat reclamation, and industrial and agricultural development）. The present findings suggest that the government should exercise caution when deciding upon developmental patterns in the sea-related economy.

Research on changes of coastal land use intensity in bay area during past 30 years——A case study of Xiangshan Bay

Taking the coastal zone of Xiangshan Bay as a study area,based on the information of four TM images of1985,1995,2005,and2015,this study divided the land use types into8categories.Then,through calculating4kinds of index models:land-use dynamic index,conversion matrix,land use structure information entropy,and comprehensive index of land development and utilization intensity,the speed,structure,degree,and the spatial-temporal changes in the land development and utilization of Xiangshan Bay coastal zone from1985to2015are researched and analyzed.Results showed that:from1985to2015,the expansion speed of aquaculture land and salt pan of Xiangshan Bay coastal zone was the fastest,the highest dynamic degree could up to11.97%,construction land expansion rate of the second,with significant increase in the area.Intertidal zone reduced by a maximum speed,and the area of farmland decreased obviously.In that30years,the main land type change direction of Xiangshan Bay coastal zone was the farmland turn into construction land,followed by forest turn into farmland.Information entropy increased by period,the land use structure homogeneity constantly strengthened and regional development became gradually mature.The change rate of land use intensity in each period was greater than zero,and the intensity of land development and utilization in Xiangshan Bay coastal zone was enhanced continuously.

A numerical study on the effect of tidal flat's slope on tidal dynamics in the Xiangshan Bay, China

The Xiangshan Bay is a semi-enclosed and narrow bay, which is characterized by large scale tidal flats and has been historically utilized through coastal construction and aquaculture engineering. The hydrodynamic model using the Finite Volume Coastal Ocean Model（FVCOM） was constructed to examine the changes of tidal dynamics due to the variation of tidal flat slopes. According to the model results, a decreased slope of a tidal flat would amplify the M2 tidal amplitude and delay the M2 tidal phase in the inner harbor, due to an increased tidal prism, and vice versa. The amplitude of the main shallow-water tide M4 would be amplified/dampened in the entire bay due to the changed bottom friction, if the tidal flat＇s slope were reduced/increased at the Tie inlet. The phase was advanced. The change of a tidal flat＇s slope at the Tie inlet had greater impacts on tidal amplitude,phase and duration asymmetry, than that at the Xihu inlet. The impact of changes of the tidal flat slope at the Xihu inlet was small and was constrained locally. Changes in the tidal flats＇ slopes at the Tie and Xihu inlets changed the tidal duration asymmetry, residual current and tidal energy via modulating tides. The ebb dominance decreased when the tidal flat＇s slope at the Tie inlet was changed. Decreased/increased ebb dominance occurred when the tidal flat＇s slope was reduced/increased at the Xihu inlet. The residual current and tidal energy density was amplified/dampened and more/less tidal energy was dissipated, with reduced/increased slope at both of the inlets. The findings in this study are instructive to coastal engineering and estuarine management.

The benthic diatom community of Xiangshan Bay

The samples collected from the surface sediments in Xiangshan Bay,Zhejiang province in May and November 2005 were analyzed under a light microscope.The species composition,abundance,community structure and diversity were investigated.A total of 179 taxa belonging to 46 genera of diatom were identified.The result showed that the ecotypes of diatom were mostly eurytopic species,followed by warm water species and temperate species.The most dominant species were Cyclotella stylorum and Coscinodiscus jonesianus.The seasonal variation of diatom abundance was remarkable.The cell abundance of diatoms was higher in spring(2.974×10^3 cells/g)than that in autumn(0.071×10^3 cells/g).The number of species varies with change of season,demonstrating the adaptability of diatoms to the temperature of water.The species diversity of benthic diatom was lower in autumn than that in spring.

A Numerical Study of Tidal Asymmetry: Preferable Asymmetry of Nonlinear Mechanisms in Xiangshan Bay, East China Sea

In-situ measurements in Xiangshan Bay, the East China Sea, show that the duration of the rising tide is shorter than that of the falling tide around the bay mouth, while it becomes much longer in the inner bay. A finite volume coastal ocean model(FVCOM) with an unstructured mesh was applied to simulate the asymmetric tidal field of Xiangshan Bay. The model reproduced the observed tidal elevations and currents successfully. Several numerical experiments were conducted to clarify the roles of primary mechanisms underlying the asymmetric tidal field. According to the model results, the time-varying channel depth and nonlinear advection prefer shorter duration of the rising tide in Xiangshan Bay, while the time-varying bay width favors longer duration of the rising tide. The overtides generated by these two opposite types of nonlinear mechanisms are out of phase, resulting in smaller M4 amplitude than the sumfold of each individual contribution. Although the bottom friction as a nonlinear mechanism contributes little to the generation of overtide M4, it is regarded as a mechanism that could cause a shorter duration of the rising tide, for it can slow down the M2 phase speed much more than it slows down the M4 phase speed. The time-varying depth, nonlinear advection and bottom friction are dominating factors around the bay mouth, while the time-varying width dominates in the inner bay, causing the tidal elevation asymmetry to be inverted along the bay.

Tide-induced Lagrangian residual velocity and dynamic analysis based on field observations in the inner Xiangshan Bay,China

In the Xiangshan Bay at the east coast of China,coastal marine pollution is conspicuous and severe in recent years.As transport of the pollutants is closely related to the coastal circulation,there is a great practical significance to investigate the circulation in this area.In this work,the surface pattern and vertical profiles of Lagrangian residual velocity(LRV)were studied based on field observation data from the inner Xiangshan Bay.By tracking GPS-GPRS drifters’trajectories,the surface LRV pattern is going out in the central deep trough and flowing inwards near the shoreside.Combined with data from two mooring stations,vertical profiles of LRV is flowing out at surface and flowing in at the bottom,consistent with the gravitational circulation induced by baroclinic effects at the estuary.However,according to the diagnostic analysis,the main mechanism driving the residual current is barotropic rather than baroclinic.The LRV equation is controlled by the tidally-averaged barotropic pressure gradient force,tidal body force and tidally-averaged turbulent stress,while the tidallyaveraged baroclinic pressure gradient force is one order of magnitude less than other forces.Additionally,the tidally mean eddy viscosity coefficient which is used in the expression of tidally-averaged turbulent stress might be not adequate and requires further studies.

A Comprehensive Lagrangian Transport Study in A Long-Narrow Bay,Xiangshan Bay,China

Study on the transport and mixing in coastal waters is of great concern to the ocean resources exploitation and ecological system protection.Lagrangian methods are direct and effective of researching mass transport.Two Lagrangian tools were adopted and combined to describe water transport in a long-narrow bay,Xiangshan Bay,China.Based on the fields of tidal velocity simulated from the 3-D hydrodynamic model,Lagrangian Coherent Structures(LCSs)and synoptic Lagrangian maps(SLMs)were calculated in the study area.Through comparison of the results,the features and relation of the two tools were discussed.The results show that the LCSs act as the separatrix of the water regions with different transport characteristics and can identify the water areas with different transport time scales.The comprehensive application of the Lagrangian tools is helpful to obtain more insight into the water transport process.

Detecting and assessing Spartina invasion in coastal region of China： A case study in the Xiangshan Bay

Spartina alterniflora is one of exotic plants along the coastal region in China. It was introduced as an important engineering approach to ecological restoration in the later 1970 s. However, owing to its good adaptability and strong reproductive capacity, the introduced species is explosively spreading along the coastal region quickly and resulting in a significant impact on the health and safety of coastal wetland ecosystems. It is imperative to quantify the spatial extent and the rate of S. alterniflora sprawl in order to assess its ecological damages and economic impacts. Remote sensing techniques have been used to address these challenges but large unsuccessful due to mixed spectral properties. In this study, a hybrid method was proposed for S. alterniflora detection using medium resolution remote sensing images by integrating both spatial and spectral features of S. alterniflora. The hybrid method consists of two phases：（1） delineation of intertidal zone as the potential area of S. alterniflora distribution and（2） extraction of S. alterniflora fraction distribution with a mixture pixel analysis. The proposed method was tested at the Xiangshan Bay on the east coastal region of Zhejiang Province, China, and mapped the spatial extent of S. alterniflora with Landsat datasets in the 2003, 2009 and 2014. The results showed that, the S. alterniflora has grown exponentially over past 10 years. In 2003, the total area of S. alterniflora was about 590 hm2, but quickly reached to 1 745 hm2 in 2009, and 5 715 hm2 in 2014. With a rate of approximately 10-folds growth within a decade, the invasive species almost occupied all muddy beaches to become the most dominant coastal salt vegetation in this region. It is believed that the strong biological reproductive capacity was the primary reason for such quick spread and at the same time human reclamation activities were also believed to have facilitated the environmental conditions for S. alterniflora sprawl.

Lagrangian methods for water transport processes in a long-narrow bay-Xiangshan Bay, China

A better understanding of water transport processes is highly desirable for the exploitation of the ocean resources and the protection of the ocean ecological system. In this paper, the Lagrangian methods are used to study the water transport processes in Xiangshan Bay in China, a typical semi-closed and narrow-shaped bay with complex coastline and topography. A high-resolution 3-D hydrodynamic model is developed and verified, and the results from the model agree well with the field data. Based on the hydrodynamic model, the Lagrangian residual current is computed by using the particle tracking method. A concept based on the dynamical systems theory, the Lagrangian coherent structures （LCSs）, is introduced to uncover the underlying structures which act as the transport barriers in the flow. The finite-time Lyapunov exponent （FTLE） fields are computed from the hydrodynamic model results to extract the LCSs. The results indicate that the LCSs act as the internal structures of the Lagrangian residual current and the Lagrangian residual current displays the residual current speed and direction of different water regimes separated by the LCSs. The water masses with different transport characteristics can be identified and their exchange ability with other water masses can be estimated by combining the Lagrangian particle tracking with the LCSs methods. The comprehensive applications of these Lagrangian methods reveal the underlying structures and the inhomogeneous characteristics of the water transport in Xiangshan Bay.

Coastline and landscape changes in bay areas caused by human activities: A comparative analysis of Xiangshan Bay, China and Tampa Bay, USA

Using multitemporal Landsat TM/OLI images at a 10-year interval, in this study, we （1） extracted information of spatial location, length, and sinuosity of coastline and landscape configuration, diversity and fragmentation in the bay areas of Xiangshan Bay （XB）, China and Tampa Bay （TB）, USA from 1985 to 2015; （2） constructed indices of artificial coastlines and human disturbance on bay area landscapes; and （3） explored and discussed the impacts of human activities on changes of coastlines and landscape types in the two bay areas. Our analysis results demonstrate the following five points. （1） During the past 30 years, the lengths of natural coastline in XB and TB shrank, while the lengths of their artificial coastline increased first and then maintained stable. Since there were different influences of human activities on coastlines and landscape types between the two bay areas, XB experienced dramatic changes in parts of coastline geomorphologies and continuous decrease of coastline sinuosity, while, in TB, there was a little change in coastline geomorphologies and its coastline sinuosity was almost unchanged. （2） The intensity of human activities in XB was continuously enhanced from 1985 to 1995, and then the degree of enhancement had slowed down after 1995. However, in the time period, the impacted extent of human activities gradually increased and finally covered almost entire coastlines in XB. In TB area, although the intensity of human activities was enhanced, the degree of enhancement slowed down from 1985 to 2015 and the impacted areas of human activates were concentrated in several coastal city areas. （3） The average area of landscape patches strongly disturbed by human activities in both XB and TB generally showed a trend of decreasing from 1985 to 2005. However, during the period of 2005 to 2015, the average patch area of landscapes disturbed by different degrees of human activities in XB changed differently, while in TB it almost did not change. （4） From 1985 to 2005, the indices of landscape diversity in various areas of human disturbance in XB gradually increased, while in TB, changes in indices of the landscape diversity varied. From 2005 to 2015, the changes in the intensity of human disturbance in both bay areas were from weak to strong, whereas the indices of landscape diversity in XB and TB increased first and then decreased. （5） The landscape fragmentation index in different human disturbance areas in both XB and TB gradually increased from 1985 to 2005, while from 2005 to 2015, in both bay areas, the landscape fragmentation index presented a decreasing trend.

Identification of coastal water quality by multivariate statistical techniques in two typical bays of northern Zhejiang Province,East China Sea

The Hangzhou Bay（HZB） and Xiangshan Bay（XSB）, in northern Zhejiang Province and connect to the East China Sea（ECS） were considerably affected by the consequence of water quality degradation. In this study, we analyzed physical and biogeochemical properties of water quality via multivariate statistical techniques. Hierarchical cluster analysis（HCA） grouped HZB and XSB into two subareas of different pollution sources based on similar physical and biogeochemical properties. Principal component analysis（PCA） identified three latent pollution sources in HZB and XSB respectively and emphasized the importance of terrestrial inputs, coastal industries as well as natural processes in determining the water quality of the two bays. Therefore, proper measurement for the protection of aquatic ecoenvironment in HZB and XSB were of great urgency.

Seasonal and regional diff erences in long-term changes in large mesozooplankton(>505μm)biomass and abundance in a semi-enclosed subtropical bay

Obvious spatiotemporal heterogeneity is a distinct characteristic of ecosystems in subtropical bays.To aid targeted management and ecological restoration in long and narrow semi-enclosed subtropical bays,we analyzed seasonal and regional differences in long-term changes(1980-2019)in the biomass and abundance of large mesozooplankton(LMZ;>505μm)in Xiangshan Bay,Zhejiang,China.We found spatiotemporal heterogeneity in the historical changes of LMZ.Significant negative trends in LMZ biomass were found in the inner and middle bay during the warm season(summer and autumn),when the nutrient concentration(especially dissolved inorganic nitrogen)and temperature increased simultaneously.Nutrient changes in Xiangshan Bay began in the late 1980s or early 1990s,coinciding with large-scale fish cage development.A rapid decline in LMZ biomass occurred after 2005 when power plants commenced operation,accelerating the warming trend.Therefore,the joint stress of eutrophication and warming likely precipitated the decline in LMZ biomass.Conversely,a significant increase in LMZ biomass was found in the outer bay in spring.This trend was consistent with the trend of LMZ biomass near the Changjiang(Yangtze)River estuary,which indicates that the pelagic ecosystem in the outer bay was aff ected by water from the Changjiang River estuary during spring.Based on our results,ecosystem management and restoration in semi-enclosed subtropical bays should focus on internal waters,which have a poor capacity for water exchange.For Xiangshan Bay,the changes in the Changjiang River estuary ecosystem during the cold season(winter and spring)should also be considered.

The optical and molecular signatures of DOM under the eutrophication status in a shallow,semi-enclosed coastal bay in southeast China

We applied stable carbon isotopes,ultraviolet-visible absorption(UV-Vis),fluorescence excitation-emission matrices spectroscopy(EEMs),and Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry(FT-ICR-MS)to investigate the chemical composition and sources of the dissolved organic matter(DOM)in both the water column and pore water in Xiangshan Bay,a representative semi-enclosed and eutrophic bay in Zhejiang Province,China.One protein-like fluorescent component(C1)and two humic-like fluorescent components(C2 and C3)were identified by PARAFAC modeling.The concentration of dissolved organic carbon(DOC),the relative intensities of C2,C3,and black carbon-like compounds are all negatively correlated with salinity,indicating that there is a dilution effect of terrestrial signals by seawater in Xiangshan Bay.The differences in light penetration ability of Xiangshan Bay cause different degrees of photo-degradation,which may play an important role in the transformation of organic matter in Xiangshan Bay.The weak correlation between the C1 fluorescent component and salinity indicates that autochthonous sources cannot dominate the protein-like FDOM in the Xiangshan Bay drainage area.Multiple sources(such as anthropogenic inputs and release of pore water)also affect the distribution of the protein-like fluorescent component under eutrophication conditions.The relative proportion of the protein-like fluorescent component in Xiangshan Bay is on a medium level in China and anthropogenic inputs may be a significant source of DOM in coastal bays.