The variations of zooplankton biomass and their migration associated with the Yellow Sea Warm Current

●The YSWC caused the zooplankton biomass to decrease by transportation.●The YSWC weakened the stratification and tended to enhance turbulent mixing.●The elevated mixing interfered with the migration behavior of the zooplankton.

Multidisciplinary oceanographic investigations were carried out in the southern Yellow Sea (YS) from December 2006 to February 2007. The ship-based investigations provided spatial distributions of temperature, salinity, and zooplankton. The horizontal distributions of temperature and salinity indicate the location of the Yellow Sea Warm Current (YSWC), and the net-sampling results display low biomass of zooplankton in the YSWC area. The mooring observations show the temporal variability of the current, bottom temperature, and volume backscattering strength (Sv) at the mooring sites. The current and bottom temperature records illustrate the process of the arrival of the warm water advected by the YSWC. The time series of Sv measured with acoustic Doppler current profilers (ADCPs) indicate a distinct change in the diel vertical migration (DVM) pattern of the zooplankton. This change is associated with the arrival of the warm water. Our investigation suggests that the transport of low-biomass water by the YSWC causes the zooplankton biomass in the study area to decrease. The YSWC also causes the DVM to change due to enhanced vertical mixing.