Abstract
The most massive outbreak on record of the Ulva prolifera green tides in the southwestern Yellow Sea occurred in summer of 2021. The environmental factors were investigated based on observations and simulations. The results suggested that the significantly enhanced discharge of the Changjiang River since winter 2020–2021 was crucial for the outbreak of the Ulva prolifera green tides in the southwestern Yellow Sea, which could significantly have contributed to the nutrient enrichment off the Subei coast. Additionally, the southerly wind stress anomaly during winter 2020–2021 favored the upwind transport of Changjiang water. Numerical experiments showed that the remaining winter freshwater coming from the Changjiang River, which persisted in the Subei coast’s upper layer until spring 2021, exceeded the long-term average value by 20%. We demonstrated that these large amount of nutrient inputs, as an effective supplement, were the reason the green tides sharply emerged as an extensive outbreak in 2021. The easterly wind anomaly during spring 2021 contributed to the landing of Ulva prolifera off the Lunan coast.
Highlights
Key Laboratory of Marine Hazards Forecasting, Ministry of Natural Resources, Hohai University, College of Oceanography, Hohai University, Nanjing 210098, China
The most massive outbreak on record of the Ulva prolifera green tides in the southwestern Yellow Sea occurred in summer of 2021
The results suggested that the enhanced discharges of the Changjiang River and the southerly wind stress anomaly in winter 2020–2021 were crucial for the outbreak of the
Summary
The water depth in the nearshore region of Subei is quite shallow, and the obserThe water in thescarce. Nearshore region ofbySubei is quite on shallow, and the observavation data aredepth relatively. Investigation and Reand Research (i.e., Project 908) of China, four cruises in four seasons were conducted search Four cruises in four seasons were conducted during during 2006 and 2007, mostly covering the Subei coast region. The measured salinity data were redata were reported by Zhang et al [19]. The digitalized isohaline was compared with ported by Zhang al. The digitalized isohaline was compared with the simulated the simulated sea et surface salinity. In late April of 2021, four GPS-tracked ARGOS surface floats were deployed in the southwestern Yellow Sea to measure the currents off the Subei coast. The trajectories of four surface ARGOS drifters were used to check the simulated circulation
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