Introduction to the Special Issue: Coastal and Marginal Sea Studies

Abstract

As an important part of the ocean system, the coastal and marginal sea (CMS) is a junction between land and the open ocean where the ocean-land interaction occurs, and also it is the area with substantial marineeconomic activities for many countries. The development of marine economics greatly affects the CMS environment and causes deteriorating environmental problems. The study on the CMS helps to understand how the land and ocean interact, and how the marine environment responses to the land system change resulting from economic developments in coastal regions. Therefore, deeply understanding physical properties of the CMS is of great importance not only in the earth science study, but for marine environmental protection. For past decades, a number of major interdisciplinary research projects have been conducted that were related to the CMS studies and monitoring. The Shelf Edge Exchange Processes (SEEP) experiments took place in the Middle Atlantic Bight (MAB) of the eastern U.S. continental shelf and slope. The experiments included multi-instrumented moorings and oceanographic cruises to address the problem of the fate of continental shelf particulate matter (Walsh et al., 1988; Biscaye et al., 1994). The project of the river influence on shelf ecosystem (RISE) focused on the coastal dynamics and interaction between river and coastal ambient waters supporting primary production in the Columbia River (CR) plume area. The concepts generated by the project improved understanding of the impacts of river plumes worldwide, productivity on eastern boundary systems, and the global carbon cycle (Hickey et al., 2010). The project studies suggested that river-supplied nitrate can help maintain the ecosystem during periods of delayed upwelling (Hickey et al., 2010). In addition to major researches, the observation network is an important issue in CMS studies. The U.S. Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS) is a vital system for integrating in-situ data and modeling simulations to provide data sources to support different kinds of applications in the CMS (http://www.ioos.noaa. gov). The system helps coastal hazard mitigation, sustainability of coastal ecosystem, fishery, and water quality, marine operation, etc. (Willis et al., 2008). Satellite imagery provides a new data source to study and monitor coastal marine environments. In the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) coastal watch program (CoastWatch, http:// coastwatch.noaa.gov), multi-satellite data of ocean color, sea surface temperature, and sea surface winds are made available to different users to enhance the coastal data accessibility (Hughes et al., 2013). Products available through CoastWatch have expanded beyond the original infrared and visible images to include synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data (Pichel and Clemente-Colon, 2000). Significant progresses in data collection technology and numerical modeling provide abundant data sources, which constitute a major driving force to advance our knowledge in the CMS and promote coastal marine environment management.