Marine Ecological Disasters and Their Physical Controlling Mechanisms in Jiangsu Coastal Area

Abstract

The studies in this chapter are focused on marine ecological disasters in Jiangsu coastal area. Three kinds of algal blooms occurred in this region, namely, red tide associated with Dinoflagellate , green tide associated with Ulvaprolifera and golden tide associated with Sargassum . Numerical model results demonstrated that red tides in Haizhou Bay originated locally, because most of Dinoflagellates near Zhoushan Islands would be transported northeastward by the Changjiang diluted water, and even the lucky ones that entered the south of Jiangsu coastal area would die in the Subei Shoal due to high turbidity there. Due to the Changjiang diluted water and the prevailing southerly wind, Ulvaprolifera could not drift southward, either. Seawater with high turbidity in the Subei Shoal limited sunlight penetration into deep water column, and further inhibited the growth of Ulvaprolifera suspending in the water column. In this chapter, we use drift bottles and satellite-tracked Argos drifters to provide solid direct dynamic evidence that Ulvaprolifera could drift from the Subei Shoal to Qingdao coastal area and even further north. The sand ridges limited the traveling path of Ulvaprolifera in the Subei Shoal, and wind-driven currents and other baroclinic processes helped Ulvaprolifera travel farther to the north.