Weak local upwelling may elevate the risks of harmful algal blooms and hypoxia in shallow waters during the warm season

Abstract

Harmful algal blooms (HABs) and hypoxia, as common ecological disasters, are typically site-specific and recurrent, causing enduring environmental problems for coastal communities. Although these issues are often attributed to coastal eutrophication, in certain low-nutrient areas, such ecological disasters still frequently occur while the underlying cause is poorly understood. A prime example is the Qinhuangdao coastal waters in North China. This study intends to investigate the controlling factors of such incongruous ecological issues recurring in those low-nutrient areas with a case study of Qinhuangdao, utilizing numerical models and satellite observations. The result indicates that the weak tide-induced upwelling during summer creates favorable conditions (warm water with high transparency) for the occurrence of HABs and hypoxia in this region. It is due to that Qinhuangdao is precisely situated at the current amphidromic point of semi-diurnal tides, characterized by weak tide mixing. Likewise, the same story happens on the northern shelf of the Shandong Peninsula, where ecological problems are also prominent in China. The present study implies that shallow waters with weak local upwelling are susceptible to ecological issues during the warm season. This finding challenges the traditional view that strong-upwelling zones are more vulnerable to ecological disasters due to ample nutrient supply within the euphotic layer. It implies that tidal dynamics can greatly affect the vulnerability of coastal waters to ecological issues, which can be of significance to coastal management. Furthermore, the finding may have broader global applicability, given the ubiquity of tide-induced upwelling in various other coastal regions.