Marine heatwave in the Oyashio region in 2022/23 and its impact on subsurface dissolved oxygen

Abstract

The Oyashio region east of northern Japan has experienced frequent marine heatwaves (MHWs) since 2010, and in the summer and fall of 2022, sea surface temperature hit a record high as of that year. This study examined the impact of the 2022/23 MHW on dissolved oxygen (DO) by analyzing observations from a vessel and biogeochemical Argo floats. It was found that warm saline water from the Kuroshio Current intruded at ~ 42°N in July. DO anomalies from the climatology above a depth of 200 m were negatively correlated with the temperature anomalies at the same depth, while the opposite was true for deeper depths. In the density coordinate, DO and temperature anomalies exhibited a strong negative correlation when the potential density (σ_θ) was less than ~ 27.0 kg m⁻³. Thus, it was demonstrated that subsurface DO anomalies could be statistically predicted from temperature and salinity fields using this relationship. Notably, DO anomalies could be divided into components related to isopycnal mixing and density-surface heaving. This decomposition revealed a dynamical process, whereby the intrusion of the Kuroshio water, which is lighter than the Oyashio water, pushed down the density surfaces, causing oxygenation. Meanwhile, isopycnal mixing tended to mitigate the increase of DO concentration since DO concentration was smaller in the south than in the north on an isopycnal surface of σ_θ < 27.0 kg m⁻³. This study clarified that, during the 2022/23 MHW, deoxygenation occurred near the surface owing the warming, whereas the DO concentration increased in the subsurface layer.