Response of dissolved oxygen and related marine ecological parameters to a tropical cyclone in the South China Sea

It is well known that tropical cyclones can cause upwelling, decrease of sea surface temperature, increase of chlorophyll-a (Chl-a) concentration and enhancement of primary production. But little is known about the response of dissolved oxygen (DO) concentration to a typhoon in the open ocean. This paper investigates the impact of a typhoon on DO concentration and related ecological parameters using in situ and remote sensing data. The in situ data were collected 1 week after the passage of the super-typhoon Nanmadol in the northern South China Sea in 2011. An increase in DO concentration, accompanied by a decrease in water temperature and an increase in salinity and Chl-a concentration, was measured at sampling stations close to the typhoon track. At these stations, maximum DO concentration was found at a depth of around 5 m and maximum Chl-a concentration at depths between 50 and 75 m. The layer of high DO concentration extends from the surface to a depth of 35 m and the concentrations stay almost constant down to this depth. Due to the passage of the typhoon, also a large sea level anomaly (21.6 cm) and a high value of Ekman pumping velocity (4.0 × 10⁻⁴ m s⁻¹) are observed, indicating upwelling phenomenon. At the same time, also intrusion of Kuroshio waters in the form of a loop current into the South China Sea (SCS) was observed. We attribute the increase of DO concentration after the passage of the typhoon to three effects: (1) entrainment of oxygen from the air into the upper water layer and strong vertical mixing of the water body due to the typhoon winds, (2) upwelling of cold nutrient-rich water which stimulates photosynthesis of phytoplankton and thus the generation of oxygen, which also increases the DO concentration due to cold water since the solubility of oxygen increase with decreasing water temperature, and, possibly, (3) transport of DO enriched waters from the Western Pacific to the SCS via the intrusion of Kuroshio waters.