Recent Trends in Oceanic Conditions in the Western Part of East/Japan Sea: An Analysis of Climate Regime Shift That Occurred after the Late 1990s

Abstract

The western part of East/Japan Sea (WES) is an important area for understanding climate change processes and interactions between atmospheric and oceanic conditions. We analyzed the trends in recent oceanic conditions in the WES after the recent climate regime shift (CRS) that occurred in the late 1990s in the North Pacific. We explored the most important climate factors that affect oceanic conditions and determined their responses to changes in climate change. In the CRS that occurred in the late 1980s, changes in oceanic conditions in the WES were influenced by intensity changes in climate factors, and, in the late 1990s, it was by spatial changes in climate factors. The latitudinal shift of the Aleutian low (AL) pressure influences recent changes in oceanic and atmospheric conditions in the WES. The intensity of the Kuroshio Current and the sea level pressure in the Kuroshio extension region associated with the latitudinal shift of the AL pressure affects the volume of transport of the warm and saline water mass that flows into the WES and its atmospheric conditions. In addition, the fluctuations in the oceanic conditions of the WES affect various regions and depth layers differently, and these variations are evident even within the WES.

Jellyfish blooms challenge the provisioning of ecosystem services in the Korean coastal waters

“…The concurrence of the positive phase in these major climate patterns influenced local hydrology, promoting a conspicuous decline of chlorophyll after 2014, along with an increase of temperature and salinity. These results agree with former investigations that showed a major influence of PDO, El Niño, and EAWM on local temperature in Korean coastal waters (Kim et al, 2014b;Jung et al, 2021). Marine ecosystem dynamics is shaped by climate variance through its influence on the pelagic physical environmental, which molds trophic interactions among successive trophic levels.…”

Guests or pests? Eirenid hydroids living on the soft tissue of bivalves

“…Complex oceanography of the area around Japan and climate‐range shifts are affecting marine fisheries resources 85,86 as well as coral and macroalgal distribution 87 . Figure 7 shows the differences obtained between the maximum and minimum values of salinity and SST, between 1993–2010 and 2011–2020 around Japan, Korea, East China, and Taiwan.…”

“…81,82 Fluctuations in physical parameters may select certain bivalve species 83 and disrupt the ecological balance in aquaculture systems. 84 Complex oceanography of the area around Japan and climaterange shifts are affecting marine fisheries resources 85,86 as well as coral and macroalgal distribution. 87…”

Relationship between systematic temperature bias and East Asian winter monsoon in CORDEX East Asia phase II experiments

“…In this study, the variability and intensity of the EAWM were described by the five EAWM indices (IdU300, IZ500, IV850, ISH, and IVAS), as shown in Table 2. Although these simplified indices are based on the 300-hPa zonal wind shear and area-averaged 500-hPa geopotential height, 850-hPa meridional wind, sea level pressure (SLP), and 10m meridional wind, these were widely used in numerous studies and were known to reasonably explain the variability of the winter (December-January-February) monsoon in extratropical East Asia (Wu et al 2006;Li and Yang 2010;Wang and Chen 2010;Boo et al 2011;Kim et al 2014;Zhang and Xiao 2013;Kim et al 2019;Wie et al 2019;Jung et al 2021). Instead of the East Asian region (previous analysis area), which was presented in Jhun and Lee (2004) and Chang et al (2006)…”