Abstract
The Taiwan Strait (TS) connects two of the largest marginal seas in the world, namely the East China Sea (ECS) and the South China Sea (SCS). When the NE monsoon prevails, the fresh, nutrient-rich but P-limited China Coastal Current (CCC) flows southward. Yet, part of the CCC turns eastward after entering the TS and then turns back toward the ECS. In the southern TS, part of the salty, N-limited, northward TS current (TSC) in the eastern part of the strait turns westward and eventually returns to the SCS. That is, the TS acts like a quasi-cul-de-sac during the NE monsoon season. Based on 822 samples from 28 cruises, the highest Chl. a concentration occurs at a salinity around 32 even though the nutrient concentration is not the highest. Mixing the cold-fresh-eutrophic CCC water and the warm-salty-oligotrophic TSC water results in a more suitable condition for biological uptake in both the southern ECS and the northern SCS.
Highlights
50% of the southward flow that passes through the TS to the northern SCS originates from the CCC water, and around 79% of the northward flow derived from the TSC water reaches the ECS
This study employs chemical composition measurements which were collected in the TS between 1997 to 2013, over the span of 28 cruises which all occurred during the NE monsoon season from November to April
The total N concentration was obtained using the pink azo dye method and a flow injection analyzer with an on-line Cd-coil yielding a precision of approximately ±1% at 36 μmol L−1 and ±3% at 1 μmol L−1
Summary
This study employs chemical composition measurements which were collected in the TS between 1997 to 2013, over the span of 28 cruises which all occurred during the NE monsoon season from November to April (see Supplementary Information Fig. 2). The measured chemical data are nitrate plus nitrite (N) and phosphate (P). The total N concentration was obtained using the pink azo dye method and a flow injection analyzer with an on-line Cd-coil yielding a precision of approximately ±1% at 36 μmol L−1 and ±3% at 1 μmol L−1.
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