Design, construction, and application of a regional ocean database: A case study in Jiaozhou Bay, China

Abstract

Access to geophysical data poses a challenge in Oceanography and Marine Sciences. Ocean databases are an efficient solution to storing, standardizing, validating, and sharing marine and environmental data. However, ocean databases of regional seas and coastal systems are still rare. In this article, we describe a regional ocean database for Jiaozhou Bay, a coastal system affected by increasing anthropogenic activities, such as land reclamation, a cross‐bay bridge construction, and land‐based pollutant discharges. Understanding the impact of human activities on Jiaozhou Bay requires a comprehensive range of research on biogeochemical and physical changes, and on the current environmental state of the bay. The Jiaozhou Bay database described here aims to inform this key research and also to serve as a reference for the future development of regional ocean databases. It includes three kinds of variables: on‐site, satellite, and modeling data. The database structure is unified and incorporates file names, header information (including metadata), measured values and data‐quality flags, which facilitate data exchange and use. We propose a system of data‐quality flags, based on 13 checks that encompass quality control of the different kinds of variables (e.g., satellite 2D data and on‐site profile data). Three examples, one for each type of data, illustrate the use and value of the Jiaozhou Bay database in better understanding the oceanographic characteristics of this bay and the impact of intensive anthropogenic activities on its marine environment.

Assessing the potential risk and relationship between microplastics and phthalates in surface seawater of a heavily human-impacted metropolitan bay in northern China

“…The overall level of MPs in the surface seawater of JZB decreased gradually from east to west. The presence of residual currents, such as the clockwise circulation in the eastern region (Li et al, 2014;Yuan et al, 2019), and the low water exchange rate of the bay (Liu et al, 2004) favor the trapping of MPs near the sources. On the other hand, mixing processes combined with strong, flood-dominant tidal currents The D-series of samples were collected in a different season to the A-and C-series.…”

Impact of Coastal Infrastructure on Ocean Colour Remote Sensing: A Case Study in Jiaozhou Bay, China

“…It is noteworthy that GOCI did not provide any warning about the possible contamination. These GOCI products are, however, regularly updated in a regional ocean database (JZB database, [29]), where contaminated data in the bridge area are flagged as land after a sea/land check during the data quality control, in order to warn users about abnormal data.…”

Response of water-exchange capacity to human interventions in Jiaozhou Bay, China

“…The Finite Volume Community Ocean Model (FVCOM, Chen et al (2003)) was applied to different historical scenarios to simulate the hydrodynamics and calculate the residence time (RT) in JZB. We used the model configurations for 1935, 1966, 1986, 2000, and 2008 validated by Gao et al (2014), and the model configuration for 2013 validated by Yuan et al (2019b).…”

“…A secondary grid of the same resolution but with no piers was developed by Yuan et al (2019b), and was used here to simulate the 2013 scenario without the bridge. The grid resolution for the 2013 scenarios was much finer than for the other scenarios; this could affect the horizontal diffusion coefficient Ah from the Smagroinsky scheme, and therefore the resulting RT.…”

“…There are also contrasting findings in the literature regarding the effect of the bridge construction on the JZB hydrodynamics. The simulation by Li et al (2014) showed a large impact of the bridge on tidal characteristics; Yuan et al (2019b) found only a moderate effect, and suggested that the use of different mesh sizes between the Li et al ( 2014) scenarios may have caused unexpected discrepancies in their numerical calculations. Therefore, the impact of the bridge on the JZB water-exchange capacity is still not clear.…”