SeaWiFS sensing of hazardous algal blooms and their underlying mechanisms in shelf-slope waters of the Northwest Pacific during summer

RCA-chlorophyll (red tide index chlorophyll algorithm — RCA) estimates from the SeaWiFS, sea surface height (SSH) variations/geostrophic currents from the multi-satellite altimeters, sea surface temperature (SST) from the NOAA-AVHRR, and wind speed/direction from the QuikSCAT are used in conjugation with field observation data to first describe comprehensively the occurrences of various hazardous algal blooms (HABs) and their underlying mechanisms and link to nutrient enrichment during the summer (June–September) in shelf-slope waters off the Northwest Pacific (NWP) covering China, Korea, Japan and Russia (perhaps this is the first satellite-based study in Russia). These datasets provide a coherent view of the summertime evolution of HABs and related physical processes in the above regional segments with four common dynamic regions: coastal cold/estuary water zones, upwelling zones next to the coast, repeated meanders/eddies, and frontal regimes induced by the Kuroshio and its tributaries. Summer HABs numerically dominated by dinoflagellates and diatoms (only in few cases) were initiated in these hydrodynamically active coastal regions and subsequently transported throughout their coastal and oceanic ranges by major currents and eddy systems. As a consequence, dense and colossal blooms displayed mean RCA of > 7 mg m− 3 and TBCA (total bloom covered area) of > 20 × 103 km2, which limits the research vessels to observe concomitantly their spatially explicit phases together with physical oceanographic features in such large regions. Less dense and spatially disbanded blooms were characterized by mean RCA of < 3 mg m− 3 and TBCA of < 8 × 103 km2. Besides those of the nutrient-abundant zones, high blooms coincided with the coastal upwelling and cyclonic eddy regimes that followed SST minimum and large negative SSH along with favorable phase of winds. By contrast, relatively low mean RCA were consistent with the fronts and anticyclonic meanders revealing moderate-high SSH fields along with variable winds blown off the NWP coast. These anticyclonic meanders, on some occasions, when nutrient-containing coastal water setoff higher chlorophyll biomass and major currents gained force in August, straddled the continental margin, entraining high chlorophyll water from the coast and from the adjacent cyclonic eddies (and upwelling) located nearby into their outer rings that formed a conveyer-belt system of transport to inject coastal blooms into the deep-sea (e.g., East Sea) region of the NWP. The above findings based on satellite data combined with field hydrographic/bloom observation data evidently illustrated richness of the response of summer HABs to the surface circulation and nutrient enrichment processes in shelf-slope waters off the NWP coast.