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Yangtze River floods enhance coastal ocean phytoplankton biomass and potential fish production
Author(s) -
Gong GwoChing,
Liu KonKee,
Chiang KuoPing,
Hsiung TungMing,
Chang Jeng,
Chen ChungChi,
Hung ChinChang,
Chou WenChen,
Chung ChihChing,
Chen HungYu,
Shiah FuhKwo,
Tsai AnYi,
Hsieh Chihhao,
Shiao JenChieh,
Tseng ChunMao,
Hsu ShihChieh,
Lee HungJen,
Lee MingAn,
Lin II,
Tsai Fujung
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2011gl047519
Subject(s) - environmental science , phytoplankton , yangtze river , biomass (ecology) , oceanography , fish <actinopterygii> , fishery , hydrology (agriculture) , nutrient , geology , ecology , geography , china , biology , geotechnical engineering , archaeology
The occurrence of extreme weather conditions appears on the rise under current climate change conditions, resulting in more frequent and severe floods. The devastating floods in southern China in 2010 and eastern Australia 2010–2011, serve as a solemn testimony to that notion. Accompanying the excess runoffs, elevated amount of terrigenous materials, including nutrients for microalgae, are discharged to the coastal ocean. However, how these floods and the materials they carry affect the coastal ocean ecosystem is still poorly understood. Yangtze River (aka Changjiang), which is the largest river in the Eurasian continent, flows eastward and empties into the East China Sea. Since the early twentieth century, serious overflows of the Changjiang have occurred four times. During the two most recent ones in July 1998 and 2010, we found total primary production in the East China Sea reaching 147 × 10 3 tons carbon per day, which may support fisheries catch as high as 410 × 10 3 tons per month, about triple the amount during non‐flooding periods based on direct field oceanographic observations. As the frequencies of floods increase world wide as a result of climate change, the flood‐induced biological production could be a silver lining to the hydrological hazards and human and property losses inflicted by excessive precipitations.