Chemical Imprints of the Upwelled Waters off the Coast of the Southern East Sea of Korea

We made intensive observations on the coastal upwelling off the coast of the southern East Sea from June to August in 2001. The upwelling exhibited a weekly waxing and waning. The coastal upwelling of the year 2001 was characterized by abrupt outbreaks and the small local scale. Upwelling occurred more frequently off the coast of Ulsan and Gampo as reported by the earlier observers. The spread of freshly upwelled colder water was varied by each upwelling event. Generally cold waters were carried away northeastward off Pohang province. The upwelled cold waters were saltier than the resident surface waters. The pH and salinity-normalized alkalinity support the idea that the upwelled waters originate from the interior of the East Sea. The extraordinarily high concentration of dissolved oxygen suggests that the upwelled waters are closely connected to the southward flowing North Korea Cold Current. Although a lower primary productivity was reported for the upwelling region, underway surface fluorescence measurement revealed that the recently upwelled waters supported up to an order of magnitude higher algal biomass than the ambient waters. Because thermohaline circulation of the East Sea is so vigorous, with an estimated time scale of less than one hundred years, that the coastal upwelling should be considered not as an anomaly but as a regular component of a circulatory system. A quantitative understanding of upwelling seems to be a key to elucidate material cycling and the associated biological production in the East Sea.