The East China Sea (ECS) and the Southern Yellow Sea (SYS) ecosystem is undergoing dramatic changes, but the spatiotemporal patterns and forcing mechanisms of phytoplankton variations remain understudied. Phytoplankton lipid biomarkers are useful proxies for productivity and community structure changes, and they were measured in suspended particles of more than 81 sites from spring and summer of 2011 in the ECS and SYS. In spring, the concentrations of brassicasterol (4.7-127 ng L À1 ) and dinosterol (0.7-37 ng L À1 ) were markedly higher in the northern and central SYS, while C 37 alkenones (0-15 ng L À1 ) were detected at only seven sites in the ECS. In summer, brassicasterol (25.3-1178 ng L À1 ) and dinosterol (0-125 ng L À1 ) showed high values off the Changjiang River Estuary (CRE), while C 37 alkenones (0-410 ng L À1 ) had high values in the northwest and central SYS. The mean concentrations of the three lipid biomarkers in summer were 3 to 61 times higher than those in spring. Spatiotemporal patterns of biomarkers reveal higher ratios of diatom/dinoflagellate and diatom/haptophyte in higher productivity areas, off the CRE in summer and the northern and central SYS in spring. This study validates the applicability of brassicasterol, dinosterol, and alkenones as proxies of productivity and community structure of the three phytoplankton taxa: diatoms, dinoflagellates, and haptophytes. The results indicate that nutrients (in summer) and turbidity-induced photosynthetic available radiation (in spring) play important roles in regulating spatiotemporal variations of phytoplankton in the ECS and SYS.

Three species of marine phytoplankton, Rhodomonas sp., Isochrysis galbana Parke, and Phaeodactylum tricornutum Bohlin, were cultivated in semicontinuous cultures to test biochemical responses (fatty acids; FAs) to five nitrogen (N):phosphorus (P) supply ratios and four growth rates (dilution rates). The characteristic FA profile was observed for each algal species (representing particular algal class), which remained relatively stable across the entire ranges of N:P supply ratios and growth rates. For all species, significant direct effects of N:P supply ratios on FAs were found at lower growth rates. The highest saturated and monounsaturated fatty acid (SFA and MUFA) contents were observed under N deficiency at the lowest growth rate in all three species, while responses of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) revealed no consistent pattern. Total FAs (and SFAs and MUFAs) in all species showed significant negative correlations with N cell quota (QN ) under N deficiency, but PUFAs had species-specific correlations with QN . The results show that characteristic FA profiles of algal genus or species (representing particular algal classes) underlie fluctuations according to culture conditions. The significant correlation between FAs and QN under N deficiency suggests that elemental and biochemical limitation of phytoplankton should be considered mutually as determinants of food quality for zooplankton in marine ecosystems.

Wind‐waves, tidal currents, and some other dynamic factors dominate the suspended sediment concentration (SSC) variations in shallow seas and it is difficult to quantitatively evaluate the effects of individual dynamic factors on SSC modulation. This work used the long‐term Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and the high temporal‐resolution Geostationary Ocean Color Imager (GOCI) remote sensing data to quantify the sea surface SSC variations on multiple timescales (intratidal, spring‐neap, seasonal, and long‐term timescales) in the Bohai Sea, and further quantitatively evaluated the effects of corresponding dynamic factors on the SSC modulation. The results indicated that the monsoon associated wind‐waves and stratification played the most important role in modulating SSC, with seasonal SSC variation of 8.1 mg/L in the Bohai Sea. The intratidal current variations played the secondary important role, causing SSC variation of 5.8 mg/L. The spring‐neap tidal current variations led to SSC variation of 3.1 mg/L in the Bohai Sea. In the long run (2003–2014), the SSC of the Bohai Sea decreased slightly with SSC variation of 2.8 mg/L (decline rate: 0.23 mg/L/year), which may be caused by the weakening wind, decreasing sediment load from the Yellow River or the massive reclamation in recent decades. Probably due to the topography, sea bed sediment grain size and river plume, SSC variations in the southern Bohai Sea were more pronounced than those in the northern Bohai Sea.

Marine phytoplankton is simultaneously affected by multiple environmental drivers. To‐date integrative assessments of multiple combined effects are rare on the relationship between elemental stoichiometry and biochemicals in marine phytoplankton. We investigated responses of stoichiometric (N:C and P:C ratios) and fatty acid‐based (polyunsaturated fatty acid, PUFA) indicators of nutritional quality to three N:P supply ratios (10:1, 24:1, and 63:1 mol mol−1), three temperatures (12, 18, and 24°C) and two pCO2 levels (560 and 2400 μatm) in the marine phytoplankters Rhodomonas sp. and Phaeodactylum tricornutum. Overall, warming and nutrient deficiency showed dramatic effects, but increased pCO2 had modest effects on the two indicators of nutritional quality. Specifically, warming showed strong positive effects on N:C and P:C ratios in Rhodomonas sp. but negative effects on PUFAs in both species. The low N‐ and low P‐media led to low contents of both nutrients but high contents of PUFAs in the biomass of Rhodomonas sp., while the response of P. tricornutum was more complex: N:C ratios were lowest at the intermediate N:P supply but P:C ratios responded negatively to P deficiency and positively to N deficiency. Large variations in the two indicators of nutritional quality can be attributed to species‐specific physiological optima and interactions between the three manipulated variables. Our results suggest that stoichiometric and FA‐based indicators of nutritional quality may change differentially in response to warming and nutrient deficiency in marine phytoplankton, highlighting the relevance of simultaneous considerations of the two indicators of nutritional quality, when assessing food web dynamics under future ocean scenarios.