AUTHOR=Li Ying , Tang Danling TITLE=Tropical cyclone Wind Pump induced chlorophyll-a enhancement in the South China Sea: A comparison of the open sea and continental shelf JOURNAL=Frontiers in Marine Science VOLUME=9 YEAR=2022 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/marine-science/articles/10.3389/fmars.2022.1039824 DOI=10.3389/fmars.2022.1039824 ISSN=2296-7745 ABSTRACT=

The continental shelf and open sea region have different ocean physical and environmental responses to tropical cyclones (TC). The present study firstly compared the grid-based maximum response (GMR) of sea surface chlorophyll a (Chl-a) to TCs Wind Pump between the continental shelf (depths 50-200m) and open sea (depths>200 m) region in the South China Sea (SCS) during 1998-2020, using multiple-satellite data. For all TC events, the average Chl-a increases by 0.13 mg/m3. The comparisons between the pre- and post-TC periods show that Chl-a increases by 0.18 mg/m3 (115%) in the continental shelf and 0.07 mg/m3 (57%) in the open sea region, respectively. In both areas, TC-induced Chl-a enhancement (Chl_en) strongly depends on TC maximum wind speed and translation speed. The strong and fast-moving TCs and weak and slow-moving TCs both induce the maximum Chl_en in the continental shelf region. While in the open sea, the maximum Chl_en was induced by the strong and slow-moving TCs. Overall, our results reveal that the TC wind pump’s effects on Chl-a enhancement are stronger in the continental shelf region than in the open sea.