| Session Details | |
| Section | OS - Ocean Sciences |
| Session Title | Biological Pumps In Marginal Seas Adjacent To The Western Pacific: From Field Observation To Modeling |
| Main Convener | Dr. Kuanbo Zhou (Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology, Singapore) |
| Co-convener(s) | Dr. Bingzhang Chen (State Key Laboratory of Marine Environmental Science, Xiamen University, China) Dr. Peng Xiu (South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, China) |
| Session Description | Marginal seas adjacent to the Western Pacific are characteristic of disproportionally high primary production and carbon burial compared to their relatively small area. However, the operation of biological pump in those regions is much more complicated compared to the open ocean. Numerous physical processes, e.g. riverine input, coastal upwelling, eddy pumping, groundwater discharge and winter convection, perturb the nutrients fields in the marginal sea, making the biology and biogeochemistry of these regions temporally and spatially heterogonous. Such dramatic changes of nutrient dynamics (ratio and concentrations) will surely impact the function of community structure. For example, large cell diatoms will dominate in the very coastal regions which receive large amount of nutrients from the land, while picoplankton will be dominant in the offshore area. The response of marine phytoplankton may induce the chain reaction within the whole food web, from zooplankton grazing to the ultimate carbon export. Meanwhile, it also changes the chemistry of the sea, e.g. the distribution and cycling of bio-mediate elements. Therefore, full understanding of the biological pump in marginal seas will never be relied on a single research strategy. It is imperative to combine both field observation and biogeochemical modeling. Furthermore, a comprehensive synthesis on nutrient dynamics, food web structure (phytoplankton, zooplankton, bacteria and/or virus) and elemental cycling will be necessary in the near future. |