Regional Oceanography Of The South China Sea

This book aims to share newly obtained results and information on regional oceanography of the South China Sea by leading experts in fields such as water mass, circulation, mesoscale eddies, near-inertial motion, upwelling, mixing, continental shelf waves, internal waves and fronts. These comprehensive results can provide new insights on global and regional climate change.

Pinxian Wang and Qianyu Li The South China Sea (SCS) (Fig. 1. 1) offers a special attraction for Earth scientists world-wide because of its location and its well-preserved hemipelagic sediments. As the largest one of the marginal seas separating Asia from the Paci?c, the largest continent from the largest ocean, the SCS functions as a focal point in land-sea int- actions of the Earth system. Climatically, the SCS is located between the Western Paci?c Warm Pool, the centre of global heating at the sea level, and the Tibetan Plateau, the centre of heating at an altitude of 5,000m. Geomorphologically, the SCS lies to the east of the highest peak on earth, Zhumulangma or Everest in the Himalayas (8,848m elevation) and to the west of the deepest trench in the ocean, Philippine Trench (10,497m water depth) (Wang P. 2004). Biogeographically, the SCS belongs to the so-called “East Indies Triangle” where modern marine and terrestrial biodiversity reaches a global maximum (Briggs 1999). Among the major marginal sea basins from the west Paci?c, the SCS presents some of the best conditions for accumulating complete paleoclimatic records in its hemipelagic deposits. These records are favorable for high-resolution pa- oceanographic studies because of high sedimentation rates and good carbonate preservation. It may not be merely a coincidence that two cores from the southern 14 SCS were among the ?rst several cores in the world ocean used by AMS C dating for high-resolution stratigraphy (Andree et al. 1986; Broecker et al. 1988).

UN Convention on the Law of the Sea and the South China Sea covers topics such as baselines, historic title and rights, due regard and abuse of rights, peaceful use of the ocean, navigation regimes, marine scientific research, intelligence gathering, the UNCLOS dispute settlement system and regional common heritage. In search of varying viewpoints, the authors in this book come from multiple countries. Ongoing events, such as the recent waves made by China in the East China Sea and increasing tensions between the South East Asian countries over the use of South China Sea, make this book especially pertinent.

The coastal environment is deteriorating at an alarming rate and is currently a great societal concern. This book provides a selected collection of papers on coastal environmental change, coastal disasters, and coastal infrastructure due to global warming, with a focus on the coasts of the rapidly developing country China. What makes the book distinctly different from others is its diversity, reflecting the interdisciplinary nature of coastal problems. With contributions from over 30 authors, the book is a comprehensive account of diverse topics, such as coastal upwelling, estuarine processes, coastal pollution, sea level rise, meteorological and atmospheric problems, urbanization and the heat island effect, and coastal infrastructure, to name just a few, from theoretical study and phenomenological description, to methodological development. This book is expected to serve as a relatively comprehensive reference for coastal researchers, graduate students, as well as policymakers and coastal resource managers.

This book summarizes achievements of the study on circulation and air–sea interaction and development of the ocean observation network in the South China Sea in the last 20 years, thus serving as a comprehensive reference book to understand the dynamic environment in the SCS. It consists of seven chapters, briefly reviewing our understanding of the SCS circulation and air–sea interaction in chapter 1, then describing in detail the upper layer circulation from large scale (SCS through flow, SCS western boundary current, etc.), to meso- and submeso-scale in Chapters 2 and 5, dilute river plume and coastal upwelling over the shelf in Chapter 3, deep ocean circulation in Chapter 4, tropical cyclone activities and air–sea flux at the interface in Chapter 6, and the construction of the observation network and database in Chapter 7. Besides the basic features of these physical processes, the book also discusses their variations and fundamental dynamics. Thus, it is written in a way that meets the different information demands from researchers working in various marine related fields.

The once pristine and rich marine environment of the South China Sea is degrading at an alarming rate due to the rapid socioeconomic development of the region. Despite this, and due mainly to complicated sovereignty and maritime disputes, coastal States have not been able to develop effective regional cooperation to safeguard the shared marine environment. Marine Protected Areas Network in the South China Sea discusses legal and political measures to support the development of a network of marine protected areas in the South China Sea. Such a network, if properly developed, would not only help to protect the marine environment and resources of the region but also contribute to decreasing the tension among its coastal States. These measures are suggested in accordance with international law, based on the specific geopolitical context of the South China Sea region and take into consideration experiences in developing regional networks of marine protected areas from other marine regions.

Covers the traditional range of topics in regional oceanography. An important aspect of work is its novel approach to a description of the features which give each ocean region its character. The two core principles are the use of the most modern database for all maps of regional distributions of properties and a discussion of all observed features within a frame of reference developed from ocean dynamics, rather than based on the simple geographical approach. The ocean's role in climate variability and climate change is described in detail. The book also includes an evaluation of all major international research projects such as FGGE, IIOE and TOGA. The SI system is used throughout. The use of modern data and inclusion of the oceanographic literature up to 1992 and early 1993 make it a useful reference text.