Water and Salt Budgets for the Yellow Sea

Abstract

Water and salt budgets in the Yellow Sea and Bohai are analyzed based on the historical data and CTD data collected recently using box models. The amounts of volume transport and of water exchange across the boundary between the Yellow and East China Seas are estimated to be 2,330-2,840 km3 /yr and 109-133 km3 /yr, respectively, from the one-layer box model. Corresponding water residence time is 5-6 years. In the Bohai, water residence time is twice as long as that in the Yellow Sea, suggesting that the Yellow Sea and Bohai cannot be considered as a single system in the view of water and salt budgets. The results indicate that water and salt budgets in the Yellow Sea depend almost only on the water exchange between the Yellow and East China Seas. The computation with the coupled two-layer model shows that water residence time is slightly decreased to 4-5 years for the Yellow Sea. In order to reduce uncertainties for the budgeting results the amount of the discharge from the Changjiang that enters into the Yellow Sea, the vertical advection and vertical mixing fluxes across the layer interface have to be quantified. The decreasing trend of the annual Yellow River outflow is likely to result that water residence time is much longer than the current state, especially for the Bohai. The completion of the Three Gorges dam on the Changjiang may be change the water and salt budgets in the Yellow Sea. It is expected that cutting back the discharge from the Changjiang by 10% through the dam would increase water residence time by about 10%.