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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Mar. Sci.
Sec. Coastal Ocean Processes
Volume 11 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fmars.2024.1458827
This article is part of the Research Topic Climate Change and Human Impact: Assessing Vulnerability and Intensification of Hazards in Estuarine and Coastal Zones View all 3 articles

Degradation of water quality caused by typhoon passage: A case study of the Zhejiang coastal waters in 2019

Provisionally accepted
Tong Cao Tong Cao 1*Feng Zhou Feng Zhou 1,2Di Tian Di Tian 2Qicheng Meng Qicheng Meng 2Xiao Ma Xiao Ma 2Bin Wang Bin Wang 2Qianjiang Zhang Qianjiang Zhang 2Jiliang Xuan Jiliang Xuan 2Jianfang Chen Jianfang Chen 2Daji Huang Daji Huang 2
  • 1 Ocean College, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China
  • 2 Second Institute of Oceanography, Ministry of Natural Resources, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The degradation of coastal seawater quality off the Changjiang Estuary and adjacent waters is typically associated with monsoon wind, ocean currents and inputs of terrestrial pollutants. Using a coupled physical-biogeochemical model with Eulerian tracers, this study suggests that, in addition to these factors, the passage of typhoons may be also important in driving short-term fluctuations in coastal water quality.Typhoons Lingling and Tapah (2019) significantly enhanced the southward transport of pollutants from the Changjiang, leading to a sudden and noteworthy degradation of water quality in the Zhejiang coastal region during early autumn, despite no considerable change in monsoon pattern or river discharge compared to normal years.As Lingling and Tapah successively passed through the East China Sea in September, the average nitrate concentration in the Zhejiang coastal waters rose by 77%, and the percentage of heavily polluted water increased by 28%. Our numerical experiments showed that the impacts caused by Lingling and Tapah on nitrate levels in these waters lasted for approximately 34 and 23 days, respectively. These results indicate that typhoons play a crucial role in regulating the transport of pollutants in coastal waters, with significant sub-seasonal effects on the marine biogeochemical environment.

    Keywords: Pollutant transport, Typhoon, Water Quality, Changjiang Estuary, Zhejiang coastal waters, Physical-biogeochemical model

    Received: 03 Jul 2024; Accepted: 26 Aug 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Cao, Zhou, Tian, Meng, Ma, Wang, Zhang, Xuan, Chen and Huang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Tong Cao, Ocean College, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 316021, Zhejiang Province, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.