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Determination and uncertainty of spring net community production estimated from O 2 /Ar measurements in the northern East China Sea and southern Yellow Sea

Continental Shelf Research, ISSN: 0278-4343, Vol: 230, Page: 104570
2021
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The East China Sea (ECS) and Yellow Sea (YS) are East Asian marginal seas and mainly cover shallow continental shelves with depths of <200 m. These seas have high biological productivities with large spatial and temporal variabilities. Nevertheless, there are a limited number of studies on the biological pump in the ECS and YS. We observed net community production (NCP) for the first time in this region based on high resolution O 2 /Ar measurements, which act as a measure of biological pump activity. Observations were conducted underway using an equilibrator inlet mass spectrometer in April 2018. Three distinct water masses were identified in the study area: a cold and less saline water mass in the southern YS (Yellow Sea Cold Water; YSCW); a warm and saline water mass along a branch of the Kuroshio current (Eastern Kuroshio Branch Water; EKBW); and a water mass near the southern coast of the Korean Peninsula (Southern Coast Water; SCW). The average NCP of 49 ± 19 mmol O 2 m −2 d −1 in the YSCW was almost twice as high as that of 26 ± 13 and 23 ± 12 mmol O 2 m −2 d −1 in the EKBW and SCW, respectively. Vertical mixing between the surface mixed layer and subsurface layers was assessed using vertical measurements of microscale turbulence and discrete O 2 /Ar values and appeared to bias the NCP estimates by ∼2%. In contrast, horizontal advection, which was assessed using the horizontal O 2 /Ar gradient and current speeds, could be a major source of uncertainty up to 38% in the estimates. The spatial variability of the NCP, shown in the standard deviations (39–52% of the three averages), may largely be ascribed to the horizontal advection in the region, which is affected by strong surface currents.

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