Advances in Earth Science ›› 2020, Vol. 35 ›› Issue (6): 581-593. doi: 10.11867/j.issn.1001-8166.2020.054

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Advances in Seasonal Variations and Controls of the Air-sea CO2 Flux in the South China Sea

Xiaohui Zhang( ),Yalan Peng,Genhua Huang( )   

  1. Marine Environmental Monitoring Central Station of the State Oceanic Administration, Zhuhai Guangdong 519015, China
  • Received:2020-04-20 Revised:2020-05-20 Online:2020-06-10 Published:2020-07-06
  • Contact: Genhua Huang E-mail:273941175@qq.com;hgenhua@163.com
  • About author:Zhang Xiaohui (1980-), female, Qingdao City, Shandong Province, Engineer. Research areas include marine biogeochemistry. E-mail: 273941175@qq.com
  • Supported by:
    the Marine Science and Technology Director’s Foundation of the South China Sea Bureau of the Ministry of Natural Resources "Carbon chemistry parameters and air-sea CO2 flux in the adjacent sea area of Pearl River Estuary: Variations and controls"(No.1729)

Xiaohui Zhang,Yalan Peng,Genhua Huang. Advances in Seasonal Variations and Controls of the Air-sea CO2 Flux in the South China Sea[J]. Advances in Earth Science, 2020, 35(6): 581-593.

Marine carbon cycle of the South China Sea is an important part of global carbon cycle. Researches on the air-sea CO2 flux in the South China Sea will help us understand the global carbon cycle and improve the global carbon system parameter database. This paper concisely summarized the changes of partial pressure of CO2 (pCO2), air-sea CO2 fluxes (FCO2), and related environmental factors in four regions in domains in the South China Sea. The low-salinity area of the upper reaches of the Pearl River estuary in the northern of South China Sea shelf area acted as a strong source of atmospheric CO2, with high pCO2(405.3~810.6 Pa)all year round. The lower area of the Pearl River estuary (salinity > 33.7) acted as a weak sink of CO2 in winter, with relatively low pCO2 (35.2~37.0 Pa). The northern slope/basin in the South China Sea acted as a source of CO2 in warm seasons with a relatively high pCO2 (45.0 Pa), and acted as a sink of CO2 in cold seasons with a relatively low pCO2 (34.7 Pa). The west of the Luzon Strait acted as a sink of CO2 in spring, while it acted as a source of CO2 in other seasons, with relative high pCO2 (38.4~47.5 Pa) in winter. The central/southern basin in the South China Sea acted as sources of CO2, with relative high pCO2 (41.0 Pa) all the year. Generally, the estimation of annual sea-air CO2 fluxes showed that most domains in the South China Sea served as weak sources of atmospheric CO2. In the future, more researches should be focused on the time-series of sea surface pCO2 and the remote sensing of the sea-air CO2 fluxes.

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