Abstract
During summer, there is great spatial variability in bottom water temperature on the northern shelf of the Yellow Sea. This variability is associated with a thermal front along the shelf. Oscillatory currents from semidiurnal and fortnightly period tides transport water masses laterally, resulting in oscillations of bottom water temperature at fixed positions, sometimes with large amplitudes. Temperature variations, as demonstrated in the present work, can cause damage to bottom-cultured scallops. In particular, in the scallop sea ranching area near Zhangzidao Island, such oscillations are evident in late summer. We constructed a spatial index of aggregated temperature variability from current model results identifying how temporal variability during the summer period varies in space. This information can be useful both in selecting favorable ranching areas and designing laboratory stress experiments on aquaculture candidate species.
Highlights
The northern shelf of the Yellow Sea is a shallow shelf area extending approximately 200 km in the along-shore direction and 20−50 km in the crossshore direction, with a mean depth of approximately 40 m
The northern shelf area is important for aquaculture, where sea ranching of the Japanese scallop Patinopecten yessoensis has been of particular economic importance (Zhou 2012)
The typical seasonal cycle of temperature for the water masses on the northern shelf of the Yellow Sea has a large amplitude, with maximum water temperature occurring in September and minimum in March
Summary
The northern shelf of the Yellow Sea is a shallow shelf area extending approximately 200 km in the along-shore direction and 20−50 km in the crossshore direction, with a mean depth of approximately 40 m. Due to mixing energy input from the tide combined with the shallow sloping bathymetry, a thermal front in the along-shore direction is established during the spring and summer (Simpson & Hunter 1974, Hill et al 2008), and the water temperature difference. The northern shelf area is important for aquaculture, where sea ranching of the Japanese scallop Patinopecten yessoensis has been of particular economic importance (Zhou 2012). Mortalities of scallops in sea ranching within this region have been related to large bottom-water temperature variations in summer (Zhao et al 2019). In areas with large horizontal bottom temperature gradients, e.g. in the region of the seasonal thermal front, periodically large variations of water temperature will occur and potentially expose individual scallops to water
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
