Nitrogen fixation driven by mesoscale eddies and the Kuroshio Current in the northern South China Sea and the East China Sea

Liuyang Li; Chao Wu; Jun Sun; Shuqun Song; Changling Ding; Danyue Huang; Laxman Pujari

doi:10.1007/s13131-020-1691-0

Volume 39 Issue 12

Jan. 2021

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Liuyang Li, Chao Wu, Jun Sun, Shuqun Song, Changling Ding, Danyue Huang, Laxman Pujari. Nitrogen fixation driven by mesoscale eddies and the Kuroshio Current in the northern South China Sea and the East China Sea[J]. Acta Oceanologica Sinica, 2020, 39(12): 30-41. doi: 10.1007/s13131-020-1691-0

Citation:

Liuyang Li, Chao Wu, Jun Sun, Shuqun Song, Changling Ding, Danyue Huang, Laxman Pujari. Nitrogen fixation driven by mesoscale eddies and the Kuroshio Current in the northern South China Sea and the East China Sea[J]. Acta Oceanologica Sinica, 2020, 39(12): 30-41. doi: 10.1007/s13131-020-1691-0

Citation:

Liuyang Li, Chao Wu, Jun Sun, Shuqun Song, Changling Ding, Danyue Huang, Laxman Pujari. Nitrogen fixation driven by mesoscale eddies and the Kuroshio Current in the northern South China Sea and the East China Sea[J]. Acta Oceanologica Sinica, 2020, 39(12): 30-41. doi: 10.1007/s13131-020-1691-0

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Nitrogen fixation driven by mesoscale eddies and the Kuroshio Current in the northern South China Sea and the East China Sea

doi: 10.1007/s13131-020-1691-0

Liuyang Li^{1, 2},
Chao Wu²,
Jun Sun^{2, 3
,
,},
Shuqun Song⁴,
Changling Ding^{2, 5},
Danyue Huang^{1, 2},
Laxman Pujari^{2, 6}

1.
School of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China
2.
Research Centre for Indian Ocean Ecosystem, Tianjin University of Science & Technology, Tianjin 300457, China
3.
College of Marine Science and Technology, China University of Geosciences (Wuhan), Wuhan 430074, China
4.
Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao 266071, China
5.
College of Biotechnology, Tianjin University of Science & Technology, Tianjin 300457, China
6.
College of Food Engineering and Biotechnology, Tianjin University of Science & Technology, Tianjin 300457, China

Funds: The National Natural Science Foundation of China under contract Nos 41876134 and 41406155; the University Innovation Team Training Program for Tianjin under contract No. TD12-5003; the Tianjin 131 Innovation Team Program under contract No. 20180314; the Changjiang Scholar Program of Chinese Ministry of Education to Jun Sun under contract No. T2014253; the Tianjin Municipal Education Commission Research Program under contract No. 2017KJ012; the Open Fund of Tianjin Key Laboratory of Marine Resources and Chemistry under contract Nos 201506 and 201801.

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Corresponding author: E-mail: phytoplankton@163.com
Received Date: 2019-08-17
Accepted Date: 2020-02-17

Available Online: 2021-04-21

Publish Date: 2020-12-25

Abstract

Abstract

N₂ fixation rates (NFR, in terms of N) in the northern South China Sea (nSCS) and the East China Sea (ECS) were measured using the acetylene reduction assay in summer and winter, 2009. NFR of the surface water ranged from 1.14 nmol/(L·d) to 10.40 nmol/(L·d) (average at (4.89±3.46) nmol/(L·d), n=11) in summer and 0.74 nmol/(L·d) to 29.45 nmol/(L·d) (average at (7.81±8.50) nmol/(L·d), n=15) in winter. Significant spatio-temporal heterogeneity emerged in our study: the anticyclonic eddies (AE) (P<0.01) and the Kuroshio Current (KC) (P<0.05) performed significantly higher NFR than that in the cyclonic eddies or no-eddy area (CEONE), indicating NFR was profoundly influenced by the physical process of the Kuroshio and mesoscale eddies. The depth-integrated N₂ fixation rates (INF, in terms of N) ranged from 52.4 μmol/(m²·d) to 905.2 μmol/(m²·d) (average at (428.9±305.5) μmol/(m²·d), n=15) in the winter. The contribution of surface NFR to primary production (PP) ranged from 1.7% to 18.5% in the summer, and the mean contribution of INF to new primary production (NPP) in the nSCS and ECS were estimated to be 11.0% and 36.7% in the winter. The contribution of INF to NPP (3.0%–93.9%) also decreased from oligotrophic sea toward the eutrophic waters affected by runoffs or the CEONE. Furthermore, we observed higher contributions compared to previous studies, revealing the vital roles of nitrogen fixation in sustaining the carbon pump of the nSCS and ECS.
- nitrogen fixation,
- primary production,
- anticyclonic eddies,
- Kuroshio,
- acetylene reduction assay

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References(66)

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