Biogeochemical Responses to Physical Processes in the North Pacific and Its Adjacent Marginal Seas

Various ocean physical processes, such as wind-driven mixing, boundary currents, upwelling, downwelling, and mesoscale eddies redistribute ocean chemical elements and thus affect ocean primary productivity and carbon sequestration. Even in nutrient-poor oceans, intense physical processes caused by tropical cyclones (e.g., upwelling and entrainment) can rapidly alter nutrient supply and prompt phytoplankton blooms in a short period of time. The Pacific Ocean has a vast sea area, a large space span, and a large number of marginal seas with obvious differences, which poses challenges to field observation activities. Multiscale physical processes may produce large spatial variability in biogeochemical and carbonate systems, and sparse observations are insufficient to address this effect in the North Pacific and its adjacent marginal seas. In recent decades, the increasing spatio-temporal resolution of various biogeochemical data and the development of biogeochemical models have provided a unique opportunity to investigate the potential contribution of complex physical processes to changes in marine biomass, carbon dioxide fluxes, and carbon sequestration. For example, the effect of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation on interannual and interdecadal changes in carbon and nutrient elements in the marginal seas, as well as the mechanisms by which tropical cyclones and subtropical storms regulate phytoplankton growth and nutrient cycle. Therefore, in the context of global warming, it is worth exploring the role of the abundant physical processes in marine biological activity and nutrient cycling in the North Pacific and its adjacent marginal seas.

The aim of this Research Topic is to better understand the effects of various physical processes on biogeochemical responses in the North Pacific and its adjacent marginal seas. It will publish the latest research advances based on field observations, remote sensing data, and numerical model simulations. We encourage interdisciplinary research involving synoptic-scale physical processes and their biogeochemical effects in the North Pacific. Authors are welcome to submit original/novel articles and/or reviews related but not limited to any of the following topics:

(1) Biogeochemical responses to tropical cyclones or other intense synoptic events
(2) Adjustment of nutrients and biomass by mesoscale physical processes (e.g. eddies)
(3) The coupling mechanisms of synoptic-scale biological and physical processes and their influence on carbon and element dynamics/cycles in key domains such as the Kuroshio Extension
(4) Intrusion of the Kuroshio into adjacent marginal seas and its biogeochemical effects