Journal
CONTINENTAL SHELF RESEARCH
Volume 28, Issue 19, Pages 2689-2699Publisher
PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.csr.2008.09.004
Keywords
Numerical study; Salinity variations; Freshwater flux at sea surface; The Bohai Sea; The Yellow River
Categories
Funding
- National Key Basic Research Science Foundation (973 project) Marine Physical Variations in Eastern Marginal Seas of China and Their Environmental Impacts [2005CB422303]
- Program for New Century Excellent Talents in Universities NCEI'-05-0592
- National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP)
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Salinity is an important component of the marine system. Previous studies indicated that the mean salinity in the Bohai Sea had increased by 2.0 psu in the second half of the 20th century, mainly due to a sharp decrease in the Yellow River runoff, and also the effects of large-scale climatic variations and the intrusions of the North Yellow Sea Water (NYSW). Since 2002, the Yellow River Conservancy Commission has carried out the flow regulation at the beginning of every flood season, resulting in more discharge of the Yellow River freshwater into the Bohai Sea. In this study, the variations of salinity in the Bohai Sea during the recent years are investigated using a well-established three-dimensional baroclinic model, HAMburg Shelf Ocean Model (HAMSOM). The simulation results show that the Yellow River diluted water was mainly discharged into the Laizhou Bay, so the remarkable increase in the Yellow River runoff after 2002 led to a regime shift of salinity in the Laizhou Bay. However, in other parts of the Bohai Sea, salinity variation was influenced by the surrounding rivers or the intrusions of NYSW, and has little relation with the Yellow River runoff. As a whole, advection is more important than diffusion in the salinity distribution, and seasonal oscillation is the main feature of salinity variation. Via several case studies, evaporation and precipitation rates are found to be important in the long-term simulation of salinity. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available