ANALYSIS OF ANNUAL AND SPATIAL PATTERNS OF CZCS-DERIVED PIGMENT CONCENTRATION ON THE CONTINENTAL-SHELF OF CHINA

The combination of a population of more than 1.2 billion people in Chi na, Taiwan and Hong Kong and recent rapid industrialization has placed a very heavy burden on the region's coastal environment. Algal blooms and red tides pose a serious threat to public health. fisheries and t he aquaculture industry. Consequently, a thorough examination of the t emporal variations in phytoplankton pigment concentrations in coastal water on a large scale is necessary. This study examined the annual an d geographic variations of pigment concentration on the continental sh elf of China from 1978 to 1986. All the available Coastal Zone Color S canner (CZCS) images (2139 scenes) from the Nimbus satellite were scre ened and examined. A total of nine annual composite images were genera ted. Annual average pigment concentrations were then examined for thre e transects along the shelf Significant geographic variation of pigmen t concentrations was revealed. A distinctive high concentration belt o f about 50 km wide exists along the coastline of China, and a large pl ume of high pigment concentration was observed to extend nearly 500 km to the east from the Yangtze River. This plume merged with high pigme nt concentration water along the coast of the yellow Sea. A basin-wide gyre rotating clockwise appeared in the center of the Yellow Sea in 1 986. Pigment concentrations were high in the Yellow Sea (about 1-2 mg m(-3)) and decreased seawards and southeastwards with a minimum value in the Philippine Sea (about 0.2 mg m(-3)). Interannual variation in t he study area was also revealed. Annual pigment concentration reached a peak in 1981. Generally, annual pigment concentrations were relative ly higher and more variable in the inner shelf and in the northern are a whereas they were lower and less variable in the outer shelf and in the southeast region. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserv ed.