Carbon pools and fluxes in the China Seas and adjacent oceans

Abstract

The China Seas include the South China Sea, East China Sea, Yellow Sea, and Bohai Sea. Located off the Northwestern Pacific margin, covering 4700000 km2 from tropical to northern temperate zones, and including a variety of continental margins/basins and depths, the China Seas provide typical cases for carbon budget studies. The South China Sea being a deep basin and part of the Western Pacific Warm Pool is characterized by oceanic features; the East China Sea with a wide continental shelf, enormous terrestrial discharges and open margins to the West Pacific, is featured by strong cross-shelf materials transport; the Yellow Sea is featured by the confluence of cold and warm waters; and the Bohai Sea is a shallow semi-closed gulf with strong impacts of human activities. Three large rivers, the Yangtze River, Yellow River, and Pearl River, flow into the East China Sea, the Bohai Sea, and the South China Sea, respectively. The Kuroshio Current at the outer margin of the Chinese continental shelf is one of the two major western boundary currents of the world oceans and its strength and position directly affect the regional climate of China. These characteristics make the China Seas a typical case of marginal seas to study carbon storage and fluxes. This paper systematically analyzes the literature data on the carbon pools and fluxes of the Bohai Sea, Yellow Sea, East China Sea, and South China Sea, including different interfaces (land-sea, sea-air, sediment-water, and marginal sea-open ocean) and different ecosystems (mangroves, wetland, seagrass beds, macroalgae mariculture, coral reefs, euphotic zones, and water column). Among the four seas, the Bohai Sea and South China Sea are acting as CO2 sources, releasing about 0.22 and 13.86– 33.60 Tg C yr−1 into the atmosphere, respectively, whereas the Yellow Sea and East China Sea are acting as carbon sinks, absorbing about 1.15 and 6.92 –23.30 Tg C yr−1 of atmospheric CO2, respectively. Overall, if only the CO2 exchange at the sea-air interface is considered, the Chinese marginal seas appear to be a source of atmospheric CO2, with a net release of 6.01 –9.33 Tg C yr−1 , mainly from the inputs of rivers and adjacent oceans. The riverine dissolved inorganic carbon(DIC) input into the Bohai Sea and Yellow Sea, East China Sea, and South China Sea are 5.04, 14.60, and 40.14 Tg C yr−1 , respectively. The DIC input from adjacent oceans is as high as 144.81 Tg C yr−1 , significantly exceeding the carbon released from the seas to the atmosphere. In terms of output, the depositional fluxes of organic carbon in the Bohai Sea, Yellow Sea, East China Sea, and South China Sea are 2.00, 3.60, 7.40, and 5.92 Tg C yr−1 , respectively. The fluxes of organic carbon from the East China Sea and South China Sea to the adjacent oceans are 15.25–36.70 and 43.93 Tg C yr−1 , respectively. The annual carbon storage of mangroves, wetlands, and seagrass in Chinese coastal waters is 0.36 –1.75 Tg C yr−1 , with a dissolved organic carbon (DOC) output from seagrass beds of up to 0.59 Tg C yr−1 . Removable organic carbon flux by Chinese macroalgae mariculture account for 0.68 Tg C yr−1 and the associated POC depositional and DOC releasing fluxes are 0.14 and 0.82 Tg C yr−1 , respectively. Thus, in total, the annual output of organic carbon, which is mainly DOC, in the China Seas is 81.72 –104.56 Tg C yr−1 . The DOC efflux from the East China Sea to the adjacent oceans is 15.00 –35.00 Tg C yr−1 . The DOC efflux from the South China Sea is 31.39 Tg C yr−1 . Although the marginal China Seas seem to be a source of atmospheric CO2 based on the CO2 flux at the sea-air interface, the combined effects of the riverine input in the area, oceanic input, depositional export, and microbial carbon pump (DOC conversion and output) indicate that the China Seas represent an important carbon storage area.