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The profound influence of Kuroshio intrusion on microphytoplankton community in the northeastern South China Sea

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Abstract

To further understand the effect of Kuroshio intrusion on phytoplankton community structure in the northeastern South China Sea (NSCS, 14°-23°N, 114°-124°E), one targeted cruise was carried out from July to August, 2017. A total of 79 genera and 287 species were identified, mainly including Bacillariophyta (129 species), Pyrrophyta (150 species), Cyanophyta (4 species), Chrysophyta (3 species) and Haptophyta (1 species). The average abundance of phytoplankton was 2.14×103 cells/L, and Cyanobacterium was dominant species accounting for 86.84% of total phytoplankton abundance. The abundance and distribution of dominant Cyanobacterium were obviously various along the flow of the Kuroshio, indicating the Cyanobacterium was profoundly influenced by the physical process of the Kuroshio. Therefore, Cyanobacterium could be used to indicate the influence of Kuroshio intrusion. In addition, the key controlling factors of the phytoplankton community were nitrogen, silicate, phosphate and temperature, according to Canonical Correspondence Analysis. However, the variability of these chemical parameters in the study water was similarly induced by the physical process of circulations. Based on the cluster analysis, the similarity of phytoplankton community is surprisingly divided by the regional influence of the Kuroshio intrusion, which indicated Kuroshio intrusion regulates phytoplankton community in the NSCS.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the Open Cruise Project in northeastern South China Sea of National Nature Science Foundation of China (NORC2017-07) for sharing their ship time. We also thank our colleagues Jianyu Hu from Xiamen University who provided the temperature and salinity data, and Weifang Chen from Xiamen University for her assistance on cruise coordination.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Centre for Indian Ocean Ecosystem, Tianjin University of Science and Technology, Tianjin, 300457, China

    Xingzhou Wang, Yuqiu Wei, Chao Wu & Jun Sun

  2. College of Food Science and Engineering, Tianjin University of Science and Technology, Tianjin, 300457, China

    Xingzhou Wang

  3. Institute of Marine Science and Technology, Shandong University, Qingdao, 266200, China

    Yuqiu Wei & Congcong Guo

Authors
  1. Xingzhou Wang
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  2. Yuqiu Wei
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  3. Chao Wu
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  4. Congcong Guo
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  5. Jun Sun
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jun Sun.

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Foundation item: The National Natural Science Foundation of China under contract Nos 41876134, 41676112 and 41276124; the Key Project of Natural Science Foundation for Tianjin under contract No. 17JCZDJC40000; the University Innovation Team Training Program for Tianjin under contract No. TD12-5003; the Tianjin 131 Innovation Team Program under contract No. 20180314; the Changjiang Scholar Program of Chinese Ministry of Education under contract No. T2014253 to Jun Sun.

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Wang, X., Wei, Y., Wu, C. et al. The profound influence of Kuroshio intrusion on microphytoplankton community in the northeastern South China Sea. Acta Oceanol. Sin. 39, 79–87 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13131-020-1608-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13131-020-1608-y

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