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Cross-shelf transport induced by coastal trapped waves along the coast of East China Sea

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Abstract

Cross-shelf transport is important due to its role in the transport of nutrients, larvae, sediments, and pollutants. The role of coastal trapped waves (CTWs) and their contribution to the cross-shelf transport is presently unknown. The impact of wind-driven CTWs on the structure of the cross-shelf currents and transport is investigated in the East China Sea (ECS) starting from theory. The cross-shelf currents are divided into four terms: the geostrophic balance (GB) term, the second-order wave (SOW) term, the bottom friction (BF) term and Ekman (EK) term, as well as three modes: the Kelvin wave (KW) mode, the first shelf wave (SW1) mode and the second shelf wave (SW2) mode. Comparison among these decompositions shows that (1) for the four terms, the effect of the GB and EK terms is continual, while that of the BF term is confined to 60–240 km offshore, and the contribution of the SOW term can be ignored; (2) for the three modes, the KW and SW1 modes are dominant in cross-shelf transport. The results show that the total cross-shelf transport travels onshore under idealized wind stress on the order of 10-1, and it increases along the cross-shelf direction and peaks about -0.73 Sv at the continental shelf margin. With the increase of linear bottom friction coefficient, the cross-shelf transport declines with distance with the slope becoming more uniform.

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Acknowledgement

The authors would like to thank Prof. Liang, Prof. Weber, Prof. Wang and Kenny for their kindly help in this work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Marine Sciences, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing, 210044, China

    Lin Jiang  (蒋琳) & Changming Dong  (董昌明)

  2. Oceanic Modeling and Observation Laboratory, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing, 210044, China

    Lin Jiang  (蒋琳) & Changming Dong  (董昌明)

  3. Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles, 90095, USA

    Changming Dong  (董昌明)

  4. First Institute of Oceanography, State Oceanic Administration, Qingdao, 266001, China

    Liping Yin  (尹丽萍)

  5. Laboratory for Regional Oceanography and Numerical Modeling, Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology, Qingdao, 266237, China

    Liping Yin  (尹丽萍)

Authors
  1. Lin Jiang  (蒋琳)
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  2. Changming Dong  (董昌明)
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  3. Liping Yin  (尹丽萍)
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Changming Dong  (董昌明).

Additional information

Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 41476022, 41506044), the Program for Innovation Research and Entrepreneurship Team in Jiangsu Province, the National Program on Global Change and Air-Sea Interaction (No. GASI-IPOVAI-05), and the Startup Foundation for Introducing Talent of Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology (Nos. 2013r121, 2014r072)

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Jiang, L., Dong, C. & Yin, L. Cross-shelf transport induced by coastal trapped waves along the coast of East China Sea. J. Ocean. Limnol. 36, 630–640 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00343-018-7008-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00343-018-7008-x

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