Reevaluation of mixing among multiple water masses in the shelf: An example from the East China Sea

Abstract

East China Sea (ECS) is bounded by the continent where the fourth largest river of Changjiang discharges large amounts of freshwater to the west and by the Kuroshio in the East and connected to the South China Sea via Taiwan Strait, therefore water characteristics are very complex and undergo great seasonal changes. The dominant source waters in the ECS are found to be Kuroshio Surface Water (KSW), Kuroshio Sub-surface Water (KSSW), Changjiang Diluted Water (CDW), and Taiwan Strait Warm Water (TSWW). Optimum multiparameter analysis (OMP) using temperature, salinity and Ra-226 were applied to quantify the contribution of individual source water to the surface water of the ECS in summer. The successful application of radium isotope in OMP analysis demonstrates the usefulness of Ra-226 in the discrimination of mixing among multiple water sources. In 1987, one interesting phenomenon was that the KSSW entered the surface with the upwelling at the margin of continental shelf, and affected the coastal water obviously. In 1999, the TSWW extended northward continuously up to the Changjiang Estuary. (c) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.