| Session Details | |
| Section | OS - Ocean Sciences |
| Session Title | The East Asian Marginal Seas as a Linkage Between the Land and the Pacific Ocean I: Physical Processes |
| Main Convener | Prof. Humio Mitsudera (Hokkaido University, Japan) |
| Co-convener(s) | Prof. Naoki Hirose (Kyushu University, Japan) Dr. Jae-Hun Park (Korea Institute of Ocean Science and Technology, Korea, South) Dr. Xinyu Guo (Ehime University, Japan) |
| Session Description | The South and East China Seas, the Japan/East Sea, the Sea of Okhotsk and the Bering Sea are the middle-scale (~10^6km^2) marginal seas located along the western and northern rim of the Pacific Ocean. These marginal waters receive strong influences from both the land and the ocean via large-scale river discharges and ocean currents, which include anthropogenic influences. Besides, these semi-enclosed seas are enriched with the high productivity and active biogeochemical cycles. These are controlled by various physical processes, such as riverine freshwater discharges, interior current systems, flows through straits, tidal mixing, upwelling, shelf-current interactions, and sea ice production/melting. Furthermore, recent studies indicate that some of the marginal seas influence to the Pacific Ocean through material transport processes. The regional air-sea interaction allows feedback effect from the marginal seas to the land area. Therefore, clarifying the roles of marginal seas in linking between the land and the ocean is one of major remaining issues for better understanding of the Pacific Ocean system. In this session, physical and material-transport processes are emphasized; contributions for oral and poster presentations based on observational, diagnostic, theoretical and numerical studies on the marginal seas are invited including, but not limited to, their physical and transport processes as a linkage between the land and the Pacific Ocean. This session also intends to bring together not only physical and biogeochemical oceanographers, but also onshore geochemists and hydrologists to better understand complex interactions between the land and the ocean. |