The Chemical Hydrography of the South china Sea West of Luzon and a Comparison with the West Philippine Sea

Seasonal Variability of Carbon Chemistry at the SEATS Site, Northern South China Sea Between 2002 and 2003

“…2. They are consistent with the general features reported previously for South China Sea waters (Gong et al 1992;Chen and Huang 1996;Shaw et al 1996;Lin et al 1999;Chen et al 2001;Wong et al 2002), and have been used frequently to distinguish them from other water masses (e.g., the Western Philippine Sea water) upon mixing. As shown in …”

“…Previous studies have revealed intensive upwelling and vertical mixing in the SCS (Chen and Huang 1995;Chao et al 1996). The upwelling of deep water brings nutrient-laden water closer to the surface, thus nutricline in the SCS is much shallower and its chlorophyll level in surface water is twice as high as those in the adjacent western North Pacific (Gong et al 1992;Liu et al 2002). In addition, several studies suggest that the seasonality of biogeochemical cycles is affected profoundly by the alternate monsoon system prevailing in the SCS.…”

Seasonal distributions and fluxes of <sup>210</sup>Pb and <sup>210</sup>Po in the northern South China Sea

“…Shorter τ Pb than the residence time of water implies a lower 210 Pb concentration in the South China Sea than in the western Philippine Sea. Indeed, compared with data from the eastern Luzon Strait, from which the deep water of the South China Sea originates (Gong et al, 1992), our unpublished data showed that the 210 Pb t is about 5-10 dpm 100 L −1 lower in the deep water of the South China Sea.…”

Spatial distribution of viruses, bacteria and chlorophyll in the northern South China Sea

“…Luzon Strait (sill depth ~1900 m) is the only major channel allowing effective water exchange with the western Pacific Ocean. The SCS is oligotrophic with high sea-surface temperature, low nutrients (Gong et al 1992, Wu et al 2003, Ning et al 2005, low chlorophyll a (chl a) concentrations (Liu et al 2002, Ning et al 2005, and low primary productivity (Liu et al 2002, Ning et al 2005. However, few data are available on the abundance of viruses and bacteria in the SCS.…”