• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.65-69
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• 2013

In situ measurement of a primary production in East Sea, a marginal sea with a fair accessibility, is nonetheless an arduous task because of dynamic variability. In this study, we estimated the mean value of background (gross) primary production over the warm region of the East Sea based on a biogeochemical hypothesis. We propose an immiscible-shoaling hypothesis for the estimation of primary production, which assumes that primary production in the warm region occurred only by the nutrient supply through the Korea Strait. Annual primary production thus estimated is $209\;gC\;m^{-2}\;y^{-1}$, which is comparable to the satellite-based estimates of net primary production in the region. However, since this hypothesis assumes that primary production is based on only the new nutrients supplied to the system, primary production would increase by 40% if we release the assumption, and assume f = 0.6. This suggests that nutrient influx through the Korea Strait alone is more than enough to support primary production previously reported. Primary production may increase as much as two times if we considered other external perturbations excluded intentionally to estimate the background level of primary production, such as coastal upwelling, submerged ground water discharge, aeolian input, ocean dumping, and mixing by typhoons as well as the contribution of cyanobacteria that has not been quantified in the region. This implies the primary production in the warm region of the East Sea would be comparable to that of the Peru upwelling region with f = 0.6.