National Basic Research Program
Principal Investigator: Minhan Dai
Duration: 2015-2019
Budget (10K）: 2500
Project Number：2015CB954000
Influenced by land-ocean-atmosphere interactions, coastal ocean carbon cycling is an important component of the Earth's climate system. However, a mechanistic understanding of the coastal ocean carbon cycle remains limited, leading to the unanswered question of why some coastal systems are sources while others are sinks of atmospheric CO2. As the largest marginal sea of Pacific, the South China Sea (SCS) spans a wide range of latitudinal zones with distinct structures. The northern shelf, which receives land inputs from the Pearl River, can be characterized as a River-Dominated Margin (RioMar) and a CO2 sink to the atmosphere. The SCS basin, which exchanges with the Pacific, is identified as an Ocean-Dominated Margin (OceMar) and a CO2 source.
Built upon the success of a five-year multiple-PI "973" project, CHOICE-C I on ―Carbon cycling in the China Seas - budget, controls and ocean acidification‖, CHOICE-C II focuses on the northern SCS shelf (RiOMar) and the SCS basin (OceMar). Through an integrated study of the carbon cycling between field observations, remote sensing as well as numerical modeling in the SCS with a comparison strategy, CHOICE-C II aims to determine the source and sink terms of atmospheric CO2 and their associated physical-biogeochemical controlling processes. What follows concentrates on the global implications and the future trends of carbon cycling in the SCS.Four subprojects fall under for CHOICE-C II:
Air-sea CO2 flux and its biogeochemical controls in the South China Sea
PI: Minhan Dai, Xiamen University
Primary productivity and the carbon cycle in the South China Sea
PI: Delu Pan, The 2nd Institute of Oceanology, SOA
Recycling and export of organic carbon and its coupling with nitrogen and silicate in the South China Sea
PI: Hongbin Liu, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Carbon transport, simulations and future trends in the South China Sea
PIs: Jianyu Hu, Xiamen University and Jianping Gan, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Web：http://choicec2.xmu.edu.cn
