This paper reviews the studies on the southern Indian Ocean (SIO) air-sea interaction and summarizes the climate variability in the SIO at the inter-annual time scale. Variance and correlation analysis of the Indian Ocean sea surface temperature (SST) indicates that a strong dipole oscillation occurs in the SIO, the so-called Southern Indian Ocean Dipole (SIOD). Large-scale atmospheric circulation in the midlatitude of the Southern Hemisphere plays a role in the formation of SIOD. A subtropical anticyclonic anomaly contributes to the tropical easterly anomalies and midlatitude westerly anomalies; this results in anomalies in latent heat flux, upwelling, and Ekman heat transport, and then changes the SST. Through changing the heat distribution in the atmosphere in the South Asia and tropical Pacific, the SIOD has an impact on tropical atmospheric circulation. In particular, it remotely influences the Asian summer monsoon rainfall; for example, a close relationship is found between SIOD and rainfall over China. In addition, the anomaly induced by the SIOD can result in anticyclonic atmosphere anomalies over the South China Sea and Philippine Islands.

Based on the cross calibrated multi-platform (CCMP), a remotely-sensed sea-surface wind field by NASA, wind wave field near the Pearl River Estuary is simulated with Simulating WAves Nearshore (SWAN) nested in WAVEWATCH. The numerical results of significant wave height, wave period and wave direction are compared with the measured data quantitatively. We find that for significant wave height, the mean absolute error is 15.4 cm, Scatter Index (SI) is 0.240 and the correlation coefficient is 0.925; that for wave period, the mean absolute error is 1.9 s, SI is 0.433 and the correlation coefficient is 0.636; and that for wave direction, the mean absolute error is 23.9°. Therefore, the numerical results are in agreement with the measured wave height and wave direction. However, due to the drawbacks of the third generation wave models, the calculated wave period is shorter than the measured period. Generally, the numerical model used in this paper can simulate the wave field near the Pearl River Estuary effectively. In addition, the influences of different calculation methods and different wind fields on the precision of the numerical results and on the calculation efficiency are studied using six cases. It is illustrated that the present calculation method and the CCMP wind field can effectively improve the numerical results.

A modern massive Poritescoral was collected from the Xisha Islands in the northern South China Sea. Based on the relationship between stable oxygen isotopic data of coral and observed winter monsoon velocity (WMV), the calculated winter monsoon velocity (WMVc) record was obtained for years 1818-2000. Reconstructed WMVc sequence shows significant interannual and decadal variabilities for the last 183 years and presents two distinct declines at the rate of -0.009 m·s^-1·a^-1 for years 1818-1954 and -0.021 m·s^-1·a^-1 for years 1955-2000. Moreover, the WMVc decreased by about 20% during in the last 46 years of the 20th century. Two complete cycles of wind strength changes have been detected in the WMVc record over the past 183 years: the highest wind velocity occurred in the 1830s, whereas the lowest in the 1940s. During the 20th century, the variability of WMVc was very similar to the opposite changes of temperature records from the South China Sea and Chinese landmass, with two significant warm periods in the 1940s and 1980s. Statistics of WMVc anomalies against the El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events show that most of the winter monsoon appeared to be weakened during the ENSO.

Beach is an important sedimentary morphological unit of sandy coast, and its sedimentary characteristics and stability are significant for its reasonable utilization and protection. Based on the grain-size data of beach surface sediment in the west coast of Haikou Bay, temporal and spatial distribution of beach sediment was explored; and the stability in this area was also analyzed through the comparison of beach height and underwater topography. The results show that the beach is on the slightly unstable stage of surface erosion, and that the shoal outside of the coast is on the slightly unstable stage of slope erosion. Moreover, the sedimentary dynamic mechanism and the reason of the beach erosion in the west coast of Haikou Bay were studied according to wave actions and sand sources.

In recent years, marine natural products of fungal origin have gained considerable recognition, as many of them possess novel structures and interesting biological and pharmacological properties. This review includes 134 indole alkaloids of marine-derived fungi with their structures and activities published during 1991-2010. Of the indole alkaloids, there were 19 fumitremorgins, 22 notoamides, 18 cytochalasans, 9 fumiquinazolines, 11 indole terpenes, 21 peptides and other single indole alkaloids, and 34 bisindole alkaloids. These indole alkaloids showed not only unique structures but also a variety of important biological activities and had potential values in application.

Dilution technique is one the most commonly-used methods for studies of microzooplankton grazing and phytoplankton growth. Negative phytoplankton growth rates were usually observed in dilution experiments. We reviewed the factors may accounting for these negative values, and analyzed their impact on the results of dilution experiments. Measures can avoid the adverse effects of these factors were reviewed and analyzed. We conclude that it is not reasonable to simply take the negative phytoplankton growth rate as the failure symbol of dilution experiments. A lot of factors including the light and temperature regimes during incubation, sampling error, contamination of particle-free water and the added nutrients, and nutrient limitation can lead to the negative rates of phytoplankton growth, and impact the results of dilution experiments differently. Simultaneously, we demonstrate the effects of phytoplankton photo-acclimation, sampling error, contamination of particle-free water, and nutrient enrichment on dilution experiments based on our experiments. The results indicate that change of light conditions can lead to the changing of cellular pigment content of phytoplankton, and specific groups of phytoplankton responded differently, thus lead to the underestimation or overestimation of dilution experiment results based on pigment analysis; insufficient mixing before pigment sampling may cause the underestimation of the phytoplankton biomass after incubation, which lead to the underestimation of phytoplankton growth rate (even negative values), but may play no effect on the estimation of microzooplankton grazing rate; in addition, contamination from the added nutrients or particle-free water may inhibit phytoplankton growth, and even lead to phytoplankton death. In a word, the simulation of incubation conditions, and the control of man-made disturbance are critical factors for the success of the dilution experiment.

The relationship of respiration and excretion to body size in Crassostrea hongkongensiswas studied under controlled laboratory conditions, in hopes of providing some scientific data for assessing the carrying capacity of aquaculture, ecological and physiological studies of C. hongkongensis. The results showed that the oxygen consumption rate (R_O) decreased significantly over the increase of dry tissue weight (W) among the groups of different body sizes (P<0.01), and the ammonia excretion rate (R_N), and phosphorus excretion rate (R_P) of C.hongkongensisyielded significant variations among the groups of different sizes in terms of dry tissue weight (P<0.01). However, no significant difference of O/N and N/P ratio among these groups was detected (P>0.05). The oxygen consumption rate, ammonia excretion rate, and phosphorus excretion rate of C.hongkongensiswere correlated negatively with the dry tissue weight. The correlations were presented by the equations R_O=1.8232W^-0.7600 (R²=0.8313, P<0.01); R_N = 0.0930W^-0.6582 (R² = 0.7444, P<0.01); and R_P = 0.0126W^-0.8874 (R² = 0.9224, P<0.01). The values of O/N were high in all groups, and the N/P ratios showed incremental trend over the dry tissue weight increasing among the groups.

The present work was oriented toward analyzing the growth and total lipid accumulation of two green microalgae, Pseudochlorococcum polymorphumUTEX 1791 and PseudochlorococcumtypicumUTEX 1792, both of which were cultured in the BG-11medium but under different sodium nitrate concentrations of 0.3, 0.5, 1.0, and 1.5 g·L^-1. The results showed that the sodium nitrate concentration, ranging from 0.3 to 1.0g·L^-1 was suitable for the growth of P. polymorphumUTEX 1791: its final dry biomass weight was about 3.7g·L^-1. The optimum concentration of sodium nitrate for P.typicumUTEX 1792 was 1.0 g·L^-1, and its final dry biomass weight reached 4.35g·L^-1. The close relationship between the variation of chlorophyll a content and the accumulation of total lipid was observed from these two algal cultures. At the early growth phase, the content of chlorophyll ain all experimental groups increased sharply, while the total lipid accumulation was not significant. However, in the mid growth phase, the content of chlorophyll aincreased slowly, but the total lipid content increased significantly in all experimental groups, especially in the 0.3g·L^-1 of sodium nitrate group, whose total lipid content increased by 11.65% (UTEX1791) and 24.99% (UTEX 1792), the maximum total lipid content and yield were up to 26.28% (dry weight)(UTEX1791) and 44.35% (dry weight) (UTEX 1792), 0.98 g·L^-1 (UTEX 1791) and 1.61 g·L^-1 (UTEX 1792), respectively.

Under the condition of sediment exposure, the kinetic parameters of the absorption process of accumulation and elimination of heavy metals Cu and Pb in Meretrix meretrixwere investigated using a semi-static two-compartment kinetic model. The kinetic parameters of bioconcentration were obtained from the model by nonlinear curve fitting, including uptake rate constant (K₁), elimination rate constant (K₂), bioconcentration factor (BCF), and biological half-life (B_1/2).The modeling results showed that K₁ ranged from 4.6333 to 72.3754, K₂ ranged from 0.0512 to 0.0798, BCF ranged from 60.7646 to 1414.9634, and B_1/2 ranged from 8.69 to 13.55. We found that the metal concentration data was confirmed to the two-compartment model, and that good agreement was found between the predicted and observed metal concentrations using the goodness-of-fit test under the condition of sediment exposure. The results also indicated that K₁ and BCF of M. meretrixgenerally decreased with the increase of heavy metal exposure concentration in the ambient seawater, that the bioaccumulation ability order to the two heavy metals was Cu>Pb, that B_1/2 of Cu was longer than that of Pb, and that maximal content in the organism (C_Amax) at the theoretic equilibrium increased and was basically proportiona1to increasing metal concentration in the water. The experimental results showed that the semi-static two-compartment kinetic model could well fit the bioconcentration of heavy metals Cu and Pb in M. meretrix, but requires further experimental research and analysis under different conditions.

The Kueishan hydrotherm area in the northeast of Taiwan Island has shallow water hydrothermal activities on the seafloor. So far, we have found more than 30 hydrothermal vents from 10 to 30m depth in the area. This article mainly introduces the mechanism encapsulation, hardware circuit and software design of our own scattering underwater turbidimeter. We used the scattering underwater turbidimeter to do towing operations in Kueishan Tao area from May 25 to May 30 in 2011. During this sea trial, we found a new hydrothermal vent (24°50^′09^″N, 121°58^′08^″E) in the northeast of the area. The results of the sea trial show that the scattering underwater turbidimeter is able to detect large changes in turbidity, and that the measurement accuracy of small changes in turbidity is not high. We will make some improvements in the turbidimeter in the near future.

Tieshan Bay is located in the northeast Beibu Bay. It has clean water and long shoreline. In this study, a two-dimensional (2-D) hydrodynamic model and a 2-D advection-diffusion model were set up to simulate the water exchange capability before and after the port construction in Tieshan Bay. The 2-D hydrodynamic model was verified by measured data, and the 2-D advection-diffusion model was used to calculate the half-life time of different area in Tieshan Bay. The simulation results show that the water exchange capability of Tieshan Bay is strong; and that before the port construction the half-life time of water exchange is 129 days and the water exchange capability is mainly affected by tidal action. The strong tidal action, large tidal range and wide harbor entrance all provide good conditions for the water exchange in Tieshan Bay. After reclamation the half-life time of water exchange would be 142 days, just 13 days more than before, so the port construction should have little effect on the water exchange capability of Tieshan Bay.

To explore the drifting character of fishing boats without working motors and people in the water is the target of maritime search and rescue. For improving and evaluating their target drifting trajectory prediction model, researchers at the South China Sea Marine Engineering Investigation Center of the State Oceanic Administration carried out 2-3 trials in Guangdong coast waters: two times for fishing boats without working motors, and three times for dummy in the water on February 2011 and April 2011. These trials found that the dummy and fishing boats mostly drifted to the right of the downwind, and between the directions of current and downwind more than 80% of the total test times. By binary regression analysis on drift velocity (a dependent variable), current velocity and wind speed (as independent variables), we obtained the following results: current-induced drift parameter is approximately 1.0, wind-induced drift parameters are 0.019 for drifting people and 0.038 for drifting fishing boats.

Physical oceanography is now entering the eddy-resolving era. Eddies are commonly referred to the so-called mesoscale or submesoscale eddies; by definition, they have horizontal scales from 1 to 500 km and vertical scales from meters to hundreds of meters. In one word, the ocean is a turbulent environment; thus, eddy motions are one of the fundamental aspects of oceanic circulation. Studies of these eddies, including observations, theory, laboratory experiments, and parameterization in numerical models, will be the most productive research frontiers for the next 10 to 20 years. Although we have made great efforts to collect data about eddies in the ocean; thus far, we know very little about the three-dimensional structure of these eddies and their contributions to the oceanic general circulation and climate. Therefore, the most important breakthrough may come from observations and physical reasoning about the fundament aspects of eddy structure and their contributions to ocean circulation and climate.

Mesoscale eddies are an important component of oceanic features. How to automatically identify these mesoscale eddies from available data has become an important research topic. Through careful examination of existing methods, we propose an improved, SSH-based automatic identification method. Using the inclusion relation of enclosed SSH contours, the mesoscale eddy boundary and core(s) can be automatically identified. The time evolution of eddies can be examined by a threshold search algorithm and a tracking algorithm based on similarity. Sea-surface height (SSH) data from Naval Research Laboratory Layered Ocean Model (NLOM) and sea-level anomaly (SLA) data from altimeter are used in the many experiments, in which different automatic identification methods are compared. Our results indicate that the improved method is able to extract the mesoscale eddy boundary more precisely, retaining the multiple-core structure. In combination with the tracking algorithm, this method can capture complete mesoscale eddy processes. It can thus provide reliable information for further study of reconstructing eddy dynamics, merging, splitting, and evolution of a multi-core structure.

The generation, dissipation, transfer and cascade of energy in mesoscale eddy field are important in the world ocean energy budget, because mesoscale eddies are widely found, dominate the ocean kinetic energy, and are involved in energy cascade at different scales. Due to limited observations, however, the energy structure of ocean mesoscale eddies and associated dynamic processes of eddy generation and termination remain unclear. Combining with our new results, this paper reviews the results on the amount, distribution, and sources and sinks of mesoscale eddy energy.

The difference between eddy formation and termination, based on eddy detection and tracking using 16-year satellite altimetry data, suggests both eddy formation and termination occur in the world oceans, except at the equator. There is no evidence of formation-dominant zone or termination-dominant zone in the open oceans, and along the eastern boundaries of the ocean basins eddy formation overpowers eddy dissipation while along the western boundaries eddy decaying overpowers eddy formation. A two-layer model is formulated, using the equivalent depth of the first baroclinic mode as the interface depth and assuming the barotropic mode and the first baroclinic mode have equal kinetic energy. We estimated the annual mean eddy energy change rate and the associated distribution of sources and sinks of mesoscale eddy energy. In addition, although dissipation of eddy energy is the dominating term within the western boundaries, intense dissipation also occurs in the ocean interior, in particular near intense currents and associated recirculation regimes. Furthermore, the distribution of the number of eddies generated minus decayed and the pattern of eddy-energy sources and sinks demonstrate that, although there are more eddies formed in the narrow bands of eastern boundaries, eddy energy growth rate in these regions is quite low due to weak mesoscale variability.

We chose 12 cases to analyze the responses of sea surface temperature (SST) in cord-core eddies to tropical cyclones (TCs). The maximum SST reduction in the cold-core eddy regions ranged from 2.7 to 9.15℃, while the mean SST reduction of the cold-core eddy regions was 1.35-5.89℃. The inverse correlation between the SST reduction in the cold-core eddy region and the moving speed of TC was studied using these 12 cases: the slower the moving speed of TC was, the more reduction the SST in the cold-core eddy region had. And there was a positive correlation between the SST reduction in the cold-core eddy region and the mean maximum wind speed of the TC: the weaker the mean maximum wind speed was, the less the SST decreased. Under the influence of TC, the eddy kinetic energy (EKE) and available gravitational potential energy (AGPE) of core-core eddies obviously increased, and the AGPE increased more than the EKE. The change of EKE (AGPE) after the TC passed to that before the TC correlated well with the average SST cooling in the cold-core eddy region, which reflects that under the influence of TC, the increases of EKE and AGPE can be used as indicators for the SST cooling in the cold-core eddy region.

Using the Regional Ocean Modeling System (ROMS) product and Archiving Validation and Interpolation of Satellite Oceanographic Data (AVISO) satellite altimeter data，we revealed some characteristics of one Dongsha Cold Eddy (DCE) during autumn 2000. This DCE survived 36 days, from September 4 to October 11. The average radius of the DCE was 77 km, travel distance was about 487 km, mean moving speed from model output was 15 cm·s^-1; eddy moving direction indicated it interacted with topography during its life time, and moved along the continental slope at depth of 1000-2000 m. The winter monsoon contributed to eddy’s direction change as well. The deformation of the DCE’s shape was related to the effect. The trend was to lead its shape to become an ellipse, with the long axis located along the northeast to southwest direction. Furthermore, analysis of eddy radius, vorticity, energy density (EI), shear deformation rate (SHD), the stretching deformation rate (STD), and the divergence was carried out. The average vorticity was 3.997×10^-6s^-1, and the mean EI was 2.42×10^-2cm²·s^-2·km^-2. The vorticity was positively correlated with radius, while the energy was negatively correlated with radius. The averaged shear deformation, stretching deformation rate, and divergence were 1.801×10^-6s^-1, 4.612×10^-7s^-1, and 3.269×10^-8s^-1, respectively. We applied three-dimensional eddy detection method to ROMS model output. There were two types of three-dimensional structures of this DCE during its lifetime. During generation, the DCE was lens-shaped and had the largest radius in the stratified layer; when it matured, the shape was like a bowl and had the largest radius at the surface; during the termination, it could only be detected at the surface. In most occasions, the DCE could reach 50 m or less, but sometimes it could reach 450 m. Finally, we also analyzed vertical distributions of velocity, temperature, and salinity. It shows that the range of tangential velocity is from -40 to 50cm·s^-1, its velocity core was located at the depth no more than 100m, and the velocity decreased sharply at 100-200 m. There was a low temperature dome between the depth of 60 and 100m, where the DCE caused 10-20m rise of the 22℃ isotherm. Similarly, there was also a high salinity dome at 100-150m, with salinity greater than 34.6‰.

There are many westward-propagating eddies in the subtropical regions in the North Pacific Ocean; therefore, it is worth studying whether these eddies can travel across the Kuroshio and through the Luzon Strait (LS). In this paper, a numerical model is employed to simulate the Kuroshio in the vicinity of the LS and the eddies east of the LS. Our results show that none of these eddies can propagate through the LS and enter the South China Sea (SCS). On this basis, an idealized typhoon is added to the model. Strong cyclonic and anticyclonic eddies can be generated by the positive and negative typhoon wind stress curl, respectively. Each eddy so generated is located near the source region of the Kuroshio in August when the volumetric transport of the Kuroshio is minimal. Previous studies indicated that these eddies are more likely to penetrate through the LS when the Kuroshio transport is low; however, it remains unclear which factor plays the dominating role in pushing eddies through the LS. Our study indicates that, although the Kuroshio is the weakest in August, all eddies generated through the wind stress forcing, either cyclonic or anticyclonic, are blocked by the Kuroshio and cannot penetrate through the LS to enter the SCS.

The three-dimensional structure of western boundary current of the South China Sea (SCS) in winter is investigated with the unstructured grid, Finite-Volume Coastal Ocean Model (FVCOM) and the altimeter data. The dynamic mechanisms of the current are explored by the numerical experiment and the dynamical diagnose analysis. The modeling results and the altimeter data show that the western boundary current has greater velocity than nearby current, which comes from northern SCS and flows along the 200m isobath towards southwest. It's strengthened at the southeast of Hainan Island and forms the south rush flow. The horizontal and vertical structure of western boundary current is complicated and variable. Since the pressure gradient force is associated with the Coriolis force, the western boundary current is generally dominated by the geostrophic currents. On the other hand, the current has local characteristics because of the impact of the winds, topography and the nonlinear advection, etc. Among these factors, the pressure gradient force and winds have the most significant contributions on the formation and evolution of the western boundary current. The distribution of pressure gradient force is agreed with the three-dimensional structure of the current very well. The impact of winds on the current is related to the local topography and the coastline.

Despite of the many processes that affect gas exchange at the air-sea interface, up to now wind velocity is typically the only factor that is used to estimate gas transfer velocity. On the other hand, it is so hard to directly measure the gas transfer at the air-sea interface. Because of this difficulty, large uncertainties still remain on gas transfer velocity. Using molecular dynamics simulation, the seawater property and the motions of CO₂, O₂, N₂, Ar, and Kr in the diffusive layer beneath the air-sea interface are investigated. Then, their diffusion coefficients at different temperatures are calculated. The detail of CO₂ behaviors is discussed as well. The molecular dynamics simulation will be a new theoretical tool for calculating the gas transfer velocity in the future.

Based on the data measured during an algal culture experiment in July 2011, this paper analyzed absorption characteristics of alga Amphidinium careraeHulburt in growth and decay periods. The results showed that in 21 days of the algal culture the growth period started from the 1st to the 15th day, and then the alga entered into the decay period. Meanwhile, the total absorption spectra varied notably: the absorption peak of phytoplankton was not found in the blue band (440nm), but was obvious in the red band (675nm). Diurnal variation of absorption coefficient in the decay period was more significant than that in the growth period. Besides, the total absorption coefficient and the chlorophyll concentration displayed a consistent tendency. Moreover, the inter-band relationship of the total absorption coefficient at 675 nm with other bands was quite remarkable; but in different periods, the fitted curves showed significant differences for the same band; and the curves in the decay period were above those in the growth period. Overall, both curves became closer and closer with increasing wavelength, and were almost overlapped at 667 and 678nm. For some specific bands (440 and 675nm), high correlations of power function between total absorption coefficient and chlorophyll concentration were found (the coefficients of determination surpassed 0.98), and the fitted curves were related to algal growth stage.

Dissolved methane concentration, saturation and the sea-to-air transfer flux of dissolved methane in the upper seawater of the central and northern South China Sea (SCS) were analyzed using data from a comprehensive multidisciplinary voyage to this sea from April to May 2010. Dissolved methane from seawater was determined by gas chromatography (GC) through vacuum pumping. The methane concentrations of the surface seawater in the central and northern SCS varied from 1.15 to 5.6 nmol·L^-1, with an average value of 2.2 nmol·L^-1. The methane saturation varied from 59.7% to 298.8%, with oversaturated methane found at 59% of the sites. The sea-to-air transfer flux of methane varied from -17.7 to 61.3 µmol·m^-2·d^-1 (calculated by the LM-86 equation) and from -27.9 to 119.6 µmol·m^-2·d^-1 (calculated by the W-92 equation). The SCS is one of the sources of atmospheric methane with an estimated value of annual methane radiant quantity from 2.7×10^-2 to 4.0×10^-2 Tg·a^-1.

Scleractinian coral skeleton is one of the central keys to determining scleractinian evolution and classification. And it is increasingly applied to reconstructing past ocean and climate histories and to predicting future impacts of climate change and ocean acidification on coral reefs. To better understand skeletogenesis and microstructure in extant scleractinian corals, we analyzed the microstructure and composition of common reef-building coral Pocillopora damicornisfrom Sanya using Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) and infrared spectroscopic methods. The results revealed that the skeletons were predominantly comprised of aragonite, with limited calcite. The macro- and meso-architectures varied between colonies and corallites. There were several types of skeletons, which had distinct morphology but shared the same basic structure and growth pattern. The occurrence of cements, which combined with the secondary aragonite and brucite in the inter-septal zone, were associated with habitats and micoborings.

The theory and basic features of velocity-depth linear model are introduced in this paper. With the velocity spectra data along a multi-channel seismic profile in the deep-water area of the South China Sea and by applying the velocity-depth linear model to the interpreted data of the profile, we obtained direct results for geological interpretation. In addition, through the creation of visual workflow and the consideration of horizontal variation of sedimentary interval velocity within the depth conversion procedures, we made the results of depth conversion more reliable. At the end, we discussed the limitation and further application of velocity-depth linear model in terms of both theory and practice, which would be considered in further work.

Contents of cadmium (Cd) were determined using 64 surface sediments collected from five typical bays in the east coast areas of Guangdong Province. The distribution characteristics of Cd in the surface sediments and their main factors were discussed. Meanwhile, their potential ecological risk indexes were calculated with respect to the background value of the continental shelf of the South China Sea. The results showed that content ranges of Cd in Zhelin Bay, Shantou Bay, Shanwei Bay, Daya Bay, and Dapeng Bay were 0.04-0.58, 0.06-6.63, 0.06-0.11, 0.04-0.20, and 0.08-0.15 mg·kg^-1, with the distributions showing that the contents of Cd in culture farming areas and the seas near Sanbaimen Dam, sandbreak dam and Haowangjiao were higher than in other areas and that the content increased from inshore to offshore, from west to east in Shantou Bay and were high in the outer bay in Daya Bay and Dapeng Bay. Heavy metals’ inputs and hydrodynamic conditions were the decisive factors in controlling the Cd distribution. Ecological risk assessment revealed that potential ecological risks in culture farming areas and the seas near Sanbaimen Dam, sandbreak dam and Haowangjiao were above the average level, which suggested that pollutions were serious. The Cd from industrial pollutants’ input carried by the rivers, coastal sewages, aquaculture settlements, anthropogenic emissions by industrial transfers, and metal deposits discharges had already caused environmental pollutions. We should pay more attentions to the situation.

The atmospheric duct in the troposphere comprises strong vertical refractivity gradient structures. It has great scientific significance and great values for propagations of radio waves and functions of surveillance equipments. Using the GPS sounding datasets obtained four times daily at Dongsha sounding station, Nansha sounding station, R/V“Kexue1”, and R/V“Shiyan3” during the South China Sea Monsoon Experiment (SCSMEX) in 1998, the characteristics of the lower atmospheric ducts were analyzed, excluding evaporation duct pre- and post-monsoon onset over the South China Sea (SCS). The results showed that the summer monsoon had an important influence on the lower atmospheric duct over the SCS. The occurrence probability of the atmospheric duct during the pre-monsoon period was larger than that in the active monsoon period and the amplitudes of the duct occurring probabilities pre- and post-monsoon onset were different spatially; they were about 12% over the northern South China Sea (SCS) and 10% over the southern SCS. Moreover, summer monsoon onset elevated the heights of the lower atmospheric duct layers over the northern SCS and reduced the heights of the lower atmospheric duct layers over the southern SCS, whose amplitudes of variation at given altitudes were all within 300 m. In addition, except that the duct strength in the northern SCS became a bit stronger during the active summer monsoon period, the strength in other parts of the SCS decreased, especial those in the southern SCS that were about 40m in thickness and 1M units in duct strength. The duct characteristics in the SCS were determined by the sharp decrease of water vapor with altitude. The summer monsoon brought much warm water vapor into the lower troposphere over the SCS where different atmospheric boundary layers formed, which resulted indifferent atmospheric duct characteristics from the northern to southern SCS.

Ship-based turbulent wind velocities were measured in the Northwest Pacific from September to November in 2005. The analysis results of turbulent wind velocity power spectrum showed an unexpected peak in the frequency range of 0.06-0.26 Hz, which was believed to be caused by platform rocking. This study proposed a new approach, i.e., an improved filtering correction, to minimize the interference from platform rocking on the signal of turbulent wind velocity. In a dual-logarithm coordinates system, the power spectral densities in the whole range except that from 0.06 to 0.26 Hz were used to linearly fit the trend of the power spectra between 0.06 and 0.26 Hz. Combined the original power spectra and the trend inversion, the corrected power spectra were obtained. Through the inverse Fourier transform, the new turbulent wind velocity data was obtained. Using the corrected turbulent wind velocity data, we estimated a few turbulent parameters in the Northwest Pacific during the observational period. These results showed that the atmospheric thermal action was strong during the observational period, leading to weakly unstable and unstable stratifications. When the standard deviation of dimensionless velocity was plotted against the stability parameter, their relationship accorded with the 1/3 power law. Intensities of turbulence in u, v, and wdirection were estimated to be 0.091, 0.076, and 0.043, respectively. The drag coefficient was estimated to be (1.30±0.26)×10^-3, which is similar to the values reported in this region by other investigators.

In recent years, significant breakthroughs of hydrocarbon exploration have been achieved in deepwater area off the southern Pearl River Mouth Basin. They helped to verify this area has a favorable geology condition for hydrocarbon. Deepwater area offshore off Xisha Island lies in the same structural belt as the deepwater area off the southern Pearl River Mouth Basin, and they have similar structure and sedimentary evolution history. Through analogy and geological research, the authors conclude that there is a good prospect for hydrocarbon exploration in deepwater area offshore off Xisha. Based on the coherence technology, results of different generations of the technology were compared with the high resolution seismic data acquired in recent years. The coherence technology was applied in hydrocarbon exploration in this deepwater area. First, the coherence technology is very sensitive to discontinuity in seismic data, and the faults can be effectively identified. On a coherence slice, the fault trend and the interaction cutting relation are very clear. Secondly, the coherence technology emphasizes amplitude strengthening and marginal detection and can be used in deepwater channel identification and description. On a coherence slice, the whole size of a channel, meandering characteristic, lateral erosion are distinct, and the edge of the channel appears as a discontinuity belt. Moreover, the core of the reef appears uniform (with similar seismic reflection characteristics); and seismic reflection clutter occurs at the edge of the reef. So, a reef can be identified by the coherence technology. Finally, there is an obvious difference between inner and outer layers of a volcanic rock. The coherence technology was applied to identify a volcanic rock. On a coherence slice, the volcanic rock developing area shows obvious weak coherence and there were radial-type faults in the core center of the volcanic rock.

Parrotfishes (Scaridae) are an important component of the biodiversity of coral reefs. Ninety-nine known parrotfish species belonging to ten genera in two subfamilies have been recorded in the world. We comprehensively summarized the history and current state of the study on Scaridae, and supraspecific groups in the main taxonomic systems. Based on the information from several museums in China, 387 parrotfish specimens registered under 30 species of seven genera were revised to 22 species in six genera. The morphological and effective identifying characters of parrotfish taxa were determined based on the morphology of the specimens. Parrotfishes recorded in mainland China were revised to 29 species in seven genera, after excluding the synonyms in 15 species and four genera. When the species from the seas around Taiwan were added, we clarified the species composition and fauna distribution, and provided an identification key of all the 36 parrotfish species of seven genera recognized in China.

Zooplankton is a categorization spanning a wide range of organism sizes. Different mesh sizes of the plankton net used in zooplankton research can lead to different results. In order to understand whether the zooplankton community structure has been altered by different mesh sizes of the plankton net in the northern South China Sea, we investigated the catching efficiency in August 2007 using two plankton nets of different mesh sizes. The mesh sizes of large and medium nets are 505 and 160 μm, respectively. The results show that the capture efficiencies of the two nets are not significantly different for large size zooplankton, such as medusae, euphausiids, chaetognathes, and so on. Species of larger zooplankton caught by the large net are higher than those by the medium net. The difference between the two plankton nets was mainly due to the loss of small-size copepods in the samples collected by the 505 μm mesh net. The abundance of 13 dominant small copepods (Temora turbinate, Paracalanus gracilis, Oncaea venusta, and so on) caught by the medium net was 11 times of that by the large net. It suggested that two plankton nets can compensate each other. In addition, although species composition of zooplankton differed in samples collected by nets of different mesh sizes, the zooplankton communities from the two nets are similar under cluster analysis. Zooplankton communities from both nets can be divided into onshore and offshore groups, either with large or medium size plankton net.

Based on samples collected at six typical sites of Daya Bay in August 2010 and January of 2011, phytoplankton cell volume was estimated, phytoplankton size structure was analyzed, and phytoplankton biomass size structure was investigated. Cell volume of phytoplankton in Daya Bay was in the range of 64 to 496757 μm³, though only a few species distributed at the two ends of the range; the species distributed in the range of 1600-3200 μm³ were the richest. Phytoplankton cell abundance and cell volume converted biomass were 76.5×10⁴ cell·L^-1 and 1.6 mg·L^-1 in summer, and 22.52×10⁴ cell·L^-1 and 0.45 mg·L^-1 in winter, respectively, which were both obviously lower than those in summer. S8 that was labeled by highest nutrient and lowest water exchange capability showed the highest biomass and was dominated by dinoflagellates in both summer and winter. At most sites in winter and those sites inside the bay in summer, the species with the largest cell size made significant contribution to biomass and carbon stock. However, the contribution of large species with low abundance could not be seen through cell abundance represented biomass and key species. Biomass converted by cell volume was comparatively a more reasonable way to represent phytoplankton stock and to identify key species than cell abundance.

Eighteen strains of marine fungi were isolated from the sediments of the South China Sea and primarily identified by intergenic transcribed spacer (ITS) sequencing. Cytotoxic and antibacterial activities of their fermentation products were evaluated using the 3-(4,5)-dimethylthiahiazo(-z-y1)-3,5-di-phenytetrazoliumromide (MTT) method. The results showed that five strains displayed cytotoxic activity against human breast adenocarcinoma cell line (MCF-7) with an inhibition rate of above 90%; fifteen strains exhibited bacterial inhibition against Staphylococcus aureusat the rate above 90%, accounting for 83.3% of the total strains isolated; two strains showed bacterial inhibition against Escherichia coliat the rate above 90% and two strains showed bacterial inhibition against Pseudomonas aeruginosaat the rate above 90%; and one strain was found to show strong bacterial inhibition against the three tested bacteria.

Alpha amylase is widely distributed in animals, plants and bacteria, and is one of the important digestive enzymes and has a significant effect on the growth of mollusk. It is the first time the alpha amylase gene in silver lipped pearl oyster Pinctada maximais cloned. The full length of the cDNA (named as pmAMY) is consisted of 1732 bp, including a 5 UTR of 25 bp, an open reading frame (ORF) of 1554 bp encoding 518 amino acids and a 3 UTR of 153bp. The estimated isoelectric point and molecular mass of deduced amino acid residues are 7.63 and 57.7 kD, respectively. Amino acid sequence analysis indicates that pmAMY contains a signal peptide with 16 aimino acid residues (MLLIVCSIAFFHSVYG), 8 cysteine residues

Amphorasp., a type of microalgae, has been used as feed of Stichopus horrensduring its larval stage in feeding experiment. In the study, to better understand the value of Amphorasp. as feed of tropical sea cucumber, we characterized the biological features using light and scanning electron microscopy, such as size and adhesion ability, and also measured the nutritional components and growth characteristics. Our results show that size of Amphorasp. is 16-20 μm × 9-14 μm. The specific growth rate (SGR) is 0.42 per day and it shows strong adhesion ability. Analysis of nutritional components indicates that contents of carbohydrates, ash, protein, and fat are respectively 30.80%, 27.70%, 26.33%, and 6.40% in Amphorasp. cell. Furthermore, contents of essential amino-acid (EAA) and unsaturated fatty acid (UFA) are very high in Amphorasp. cell, at 44.96% and 54.471%, respectively. Among them, the percentage of polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) is 22.661%, eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and arachidonic acid (AA) are 5.622% and 3.26%, respectively, while linoleic acid and linolenic acid is only 2.112%. Overall, it can be concluded that Amphorasp. has the excellent biological characteristics, including moderate cell size, strong adhesion ability, weak movement, as well as reasonable nutrition content, and should be a good choice for feeding tropical sea cucumber at its larval stage. The data in the study also provide theoretical basis for developing artificial feeds for tropical sea cucumber.

Spatial and temporal distributions of bacterioplankton biomass were seasonally investigated at 10 sampling stations in Shenzhen Bay in February, May, August, and November of 2008. The bacterioplankton biomass ranged from 0.82×10^-2 to 36.42×10^-2 μg·mL^-1, with an annual average of 9.97×10^-2 μg·mL^-1. The bacterioplankton biomass was the greatest in spring (19.80×10^-2 μg·mL^-1), followed by winter (7.00×10^-2 μg·mL^-1), summer (3.77×10^-2 μg·mL^-1), and autumn (3.60×10^-2 μg·mL^-1) in turn, revealing different seasonal patterns in this bay compared with other sea areas. The bacterioplankton biomass decreased horizontally from the inner bay to the outer bay, and from landward to seaward, with a higher biomass at some stations near river mouth and harbor. The bacterioplankton biomass was significantly positively relative to PO₄^3--P, TN, COD, and TOC in Shenzhen Bay. Input of organic matters from land influenced horizontal and temporal distributions of bacterioplankton biomass. The abundance of bacterioplankton ranged from 0.41×10⁶ to 18.2×10⁶ ind·mL^-1, with an annual average of 5.21×10⁶ ind·mL^-1, implying serious eutrophication in this bay and revealing a decreasing pattern from the inner bay to the outer bay.

Under laboratory condition, a stress experiment of four environmental factors (temperature, pH, phosphate and copper) on scleractinian (Porites luteaand Goniopora stutchburyi) was carried. The results suggested the four environmental factors have significant impacts on the areal zooxanthellae density and zooxanthellae chlorophyll-a content of two coral species and show a significant differences between control and treatment (p<0.05). Along with the increase of temperature, the decrease of pH, and the increases of phosphate concentration and copper concentration in the seawater, two coral species were stimulated to have slime secretion at first, and then their tentacle lost activity density and coral surfaces lost colors until

The response of Superoxide Dismutase (SOD), Acid Phosphatase (ACP), and Phenoloxidase (PO) in Penaeus monodonfamilies to normal growth, low temperature stress and high ammonia stress was studied under laboratory condition. Growth in terms of specific growth rate (SGR) was significant difference among the selected families (p<0.05). The activities of ACP were significant difference among family 077, 017 and 661. The activities of SOD were significant difference between family 4612 and family 017. When the rearing temperature decreased from 27 ℃ to 20 ℃, the activities of ACP and SOD first increased and then decreased, the activities of PO reduced prolonged according to the low temperature stress, and the minor changes of control trial were not regular. Under the high ammonia stress, the activities of ACP increased prolonged, the activities of SOD increased in 0-8 h, then rapidly decreased in 8-48 h, the activities of PO reduced in 0-48 h, and the minor changes of control trial were not regular. The activities of immune enzymes of some families were significant differences, and three immune enzymes activities of family 4612 higher than that of other families under the high ammonia stress. A negative correlation was found between the specific growth rate and the activities of ACP, SOD and PO of ten families in three trials.

A total of 12 species of tintinnids in seven genera were found in the western South China Sea during summer 2007; in addition, two species (Eutintinnus elegansand Xystonellopsis brandti) were recorded for the first time in the South China Sea. The range of tintinnids abundance was from 0 to 11622 ind·m^-2 with an average of (2218±2254) ind·m^-2, and the species richness was from 0 to 6. The five dominant species were Cyttarocylis acutiformis, Cyttarocylis eucecryphalus, Xystonellopsis favata, Codonellopsis meridionalis,and Rhabdonella conica. The dominance degree of R. conicawas the highest, so was its aggregation intensity, which means that it was more closely related to environmental changes. Cyttarocylis acutiformisand C. eucecryphaluswere given the lowest aggregation intensity and more evenly distributed spatially. Both species diversity and species evenness in the western South China Sea were low due to the effects of monsoon, ocean currents and different water masses, which indicates that tintinnids community were in an unstable state. Correlation analysis by SPSS (Statistical Product and Service Solutions) software revealed no significant correlation among tintinnids abundance, species abundance and environment factors. Codonaria oceanica, X. favataand R. conicashowed significant relationships with environment factors. The community structure was characterized by more pelagic species and more unstable in the western South China Sea than in the northern South China Sea. R. conicawas considered as biological indicator species of water masses for its high average abundance [(1811±1636) ind·m^-2] and maximum abundance (4809 ind·m^-2), and fine correlation with environmental factors.

Prorocentrum rhathymumis a harmful dinoflagellate species of red tide algae. However, there were nearly no researches on the growth of Prorocentrum rhathymumin China. In this paper, the effect of temperature, salinity, illumination, initial cell density and nutrients on the growth of Prorocentrum rhathymumwas studied. The results showed that the optimum