Upper-ocean temperature trends in the Eastern China Seas during 1976-1996 -- Journal of Oceanology and Limnology,2018,36(5):1527-1536

	Cite this paper:
	WANG Yuqi, LIN Xiaopei, LI Ziguang. Upper-ocean temperature trends in the Eastern China Seas during 1976-1996[J]. Journal of Oceanology and Limnology, 2018, 36(5): 1527-1536

Upper-ocean temperature trends in the Eastern China Seas during 1976-1996

WANG Yuqi, LIN Xiaopei, LI Ziguang

Physical Oceanography Laboratory/CIMST, Ocean University of China and Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology, Qingdao 266100, China

Abstract:

Temperature in the Eastern China Seas (ECS), including the Bohai, Yellow, and East China seas, is crucially important with regard to weather forecasting and fishery activities of adjacent countries. Although sea surface temperature (SST) in the ECS has demonstrated a dramatically accelerated trend of warming after a regime shift (1976-1996), trends beneath the surface remain poorly understood because of the sparsity of observations. This study used in situ hydrographic data from 1976 to 1996 to examine upperocean temperature trends in the ECS. It was found that the multilevel trends show consistency with that of the surface water; i.e., warming is faster in winter than summer. However, the magnitudes of the trends weaken with increasing depth. Furthermore, the seasonal difference in the upper ocean is mainly associated with the warm currents in the ECS, which implies an essential contribution from horizontal advection. These phenomena could also be detected from data acquired from the routinely observed PN and 34°N sections. The spatiotemporal patterns of temperature trends in the upper ECS extend our understanding beyond the SST, especially highlighting the role of ocean dynamics in forming temperature patterns beneath the surface in comparison with atmospheric effects.

Key words: upper ocean|temperature trends|Eastern China Seas

Received: 2017-10-11 Revised:

Tools

PDF (8322 KB) Free

Print this page

Add to favorites

Email this article to others

Authors

Articles by WANG Yuqi

Articles by LIN Xiaopei

Articles by LI Ziguang

References:
Cai R S, Chen J L, Huang R H. 2006. The response of marine environment in the offshore area of China and its adjacent ocean to recent global climate change. Chinese Journal of Atmospheric Sciences, 30(5):1 019-1 033. (in Chinese with English abstract)
Chen X R, Cai Y, Tan J, Huang Y Y, Wang L. 2014. Research progress on hiatus in the process of global warming. Advances in Earth Science, 29(8):947-955. (in Chinese with English abstract)
Chen Y L, Ho C R. 2002. A study on global and regional sea surface temperature trends. Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, 7:41-58.
Conkright M E, Antonov J I, Baranova O K, Boyer T P, Garcia H E, Gelfeld R, Johnson D, Locarnini R A, Murphy P P, O'Brien T D, Smolyar I, Stephens C. 2002. World ocean database 2001, Vol. 1:introduction. In:Levitus S ed. NOAA Atlas NESDIS 42. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC. 167p.
Cressman G P. 1959. An operational objective analysis system. Mon. Wea. Rev, 87(10):367-374.
Easterling D R, Wehner M F. 2009. Is the climate warming or cooling? Geophysical Research Letters, 36(8):L08706, https://doi.org/10.1029/2009GL037810.
Feng L, Lin X P. 2009. Long-term trend of the East China Sea surface temperature during 1945~2006. Periodical of Ocean University of China, 39(1):13-18. (in Chinese with English abstract)
Guan B X. 1988. Major features and variability of the Kuroshio in the East China Sea. Chinese Journal of Oceanology and Limnology, 6(1):35-48.
Ishii M, Kimoto M, Kachi M. 2003. Historical ocean subsurface temperature analysis with error estimates. Monthly Weather Review, 131(1):51-73.
Ishii M, Kimoto M, Sakamoto K, Iwasaki S I. 2006. Steric sea level changes estimated from historical ocean subsurface temperature and salinity analyses. Journal of Oceanography, 62(2):155-170.
Latif M, Barnett T P. 1994. Causes of decadal climate variability over the North Pacific and North America. Science, 266(5185):634-638.
Levitus S, Boyer T P, Antonov J. 1994. World Ocean Atlas 1994, Vol. 5:Interannual Variability of Upper Ocean Thermal Structure. NOAA Atlas NESDIS, Maryland, USA. 176p.
Lin C L, Su J L, Xu B R, Tang Q S. 2001. Long-term variations of temperature and salinity of the Bohai Sea and their influence on its ecosystem. Progress in Oceanography, 49(1-4):7-19, https://doi.org/10.1016/s0079-6611(01)00013-1.
Lin C, Ning X, Su J, Lin Y, Xu B. 2005. Environmental changes and the responses of the ecosystems of the Yellow Sea during 1976-2000. Journal of Marine Systems, 55(3-4):223-234, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmarsys.2004.08.001.
Lin X P, Xu L X, Li J P, Luo D H, Liu H L. 2016. Research on the global warming hiatus. Advances in Earth Science, 31(10):995-1 000, https://doi.org/10.11867/j.issn.1001-8166.2016.10.0995. (in Chinese with English abstract)
Lin X P, Yang J Y, Guo J S, Zhang Z X, Yin Y Q, Song X Z, Zhang X H. 2011. An asymmetric upwind flow, Yellow Sea Warm Current:1. New observations in the western Yellow Sea. Journal of Geophysical Research:Oceans, 116(C4):C04026, https://doi.org/10.1029/2010jc006513.
Lin X P, Yang J Y. 2011. An asymmetric upwind flow, Yellow Sea Warm Current:2. Arrested topographic waves in response to the northwesterly wind. Journal of Geophysical Research:Oceans, 116(C4):C04027, https://doi.org/10.1029/2010jc006514.
Liu Q Y, Xie S P, Li L J, Maximenko N A. 2005. Ocean thermal advective effect on the annual range of sea surface temperature. Geophysical Research Letters, 32(24):L24604, https://doi.org/10.1029/2005GL024493.
Liu Q Y, Zhang Q. 2013. Analysis on long-term change of sea surface temperature in the China Seas. Journal of Ocean University of China, 12(2):295-300, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11802-013-2172-2.
Park W S, Oh I S. 2000. Interannual and interdecadal variations of sea surface temperature in the East Asian Marginal Seas. Progress in Oceanography, 47(2-4):191-204.
Smith N R. 1995. An improved system for tropical ocean subsurface temperature analyses. Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology, 12(4):850-870.
Tang X H, Wang F, Chen Y L, Li M K. 2009. Warming trend in northern East China Sea in recent four decades. Chinese Journal of Oceanology and Limnology, 27(2):185-191, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00343-009-9238-4.
Tian Y J, Akamine T, Suda M. 2003. Variations in the abundance of Pacific saury (Cololabis saira) from the northwestern Pacific in relation to oceanic-climate changes. Fisheries Research, 60(2-3):439-454.
Tomita T, Xie S P, Nonaka M. 2002. Estimates of surface and subsurface forcing for decadal sea surface temperature variability in the mid-latitude North Pacific. Journal of the Meteorological Society of Japan Series Ⅱ, 80(5):1 289-1 300.
Wang F, Meng Q J, Tang X H, Hu D X. 2013. The long-term variability of sea surface temperature in the seas east of China in the past 40 a. Acta Oceanologica Sinica, 32(3):48-53, https://doi.org/10.1007/s13131-013-0288-2.
Wei Y Z, Huang D J, Zhu X H. 2013. Interannual to decadal variability of the Kuroshio Current in the East China Sea from 1955 to 2010 as indicated by in-situ hydrographic data. Journal of Oceanography, 69(5):571-589, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10872-013-0193-5.
Weng X C, Zhang Q L, Yang Y L, Yan T Z. 1996. The Kuroshio heat transport in the East China Sea and its relation to the precipitation in the rainy season in the Huanghuai Plain area. Oceanologia et Limnologia Sinica, 27(3):237-245.(in Chinese with English abstract)
White W B. 1995. Design of a global observing system for gyre-scale upper ocean temperature variability. Progress in Oceanography, 36(3):169-217, https://doi.org/10.1016/0079-6611(95)00017-8.
Wu D X, Li Q, Lin X P, Bao X W. 2005. The characteristics of the Bohai Sea SST anomaly interannual variability during 1990~1999. Periodical of Ocean University of China, 35(2):173-176. (in Chinese with English abstract)
Wu L X, Cai W J, Zhang L P, Nakamura H, Timmermann A, Joyce T, McPhaden M J, Alexander M, Qiu B, Visbeck M, Chang P, Giese B. 2012. Enhanced warming over the global subtropical western boundary currents. Nature Climate Change, 2(3):161-166, https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate1353.
Xie S P, Hafner J, Tanimoto Y, Liu W T, Tokinaga H, Xu H M. 2002. Bathymetric effect on the winter sea surface temperature and climate of the Yellow and East China Seas. Geophysical Research Letters, 29(24):2228, https://doi.org/10.1029/2002gl015884.
Xu L L, Wu D X, Lin X P, Ma C. 2009. The study of the Yellow Sea Warm Current and its seasonal variability. Journal of Hydrodynamics, Ser. B, 21(2):159-165.
Zhang L P, Wu L X, Lin X P, Wu D X. 2010. Modes and mechanisms of sea surface temperature low-frequency variations over the coastal China seas. Journal of Geophysical Research:Oceans, 115(C8):C08031, https://doi.org/10.1029/2009jc006025.
Zhang X Z, Qiu Y F, Wu X Y. 2005. The long-term change for sea surface temperature in the last 100 years in the offshore sea of China. Climatic and Environmental Research, 10(4):799-807.