Program

Marine Mornitoring and Information Services Platform, Xiamen University Recent climate observations suggest that global climate change may result in an increase of extreme weather events (such as tropical cyclones, intense precipitation i.e. heavy rains) in frequency and/or intensity in certain world regions. Subtropical coastal regions are often densely populated areas experiencing rapid development and widespread changes to the aquatic environment. The biogeochemical and ecological responses of coastal systems to extreme weather events are of increasing concern. Enhanced river nutrients input following rain storms has been linked to the ecological responses at land-sea interface. These land-sea interactions can be studied using multifunctional sensors systems. In our study, the Ecological Dynamic Buoy Array, a monitoring system with multiple sensors, was deployed in Xiamen Bay for near real time measurements of different parameters. The Ecological Dynamic Buoy Array is a deep water net cage which functions in long-term synchronous observation of dynamic ecological characteristics with the support of an aerograph, water-watch, LOBO (Land/Ocean Biogeochemical Observatory), ADCP, CTD chain system, YSI vertical profiler, flow cytometer, sea surface camera, and "communication box". The study showed that rain storms during multiple typhoons resulted in greater fluctuations of salinity, N concentration, and other water environmental conditions, which might have been connected with algal blooms (so-called red tide) in Xiamen Bay.