MEPS 447:77-86 (2012)  -  DOI: https://doi.org/10.3354/meps09509

ABSTRACT: Nitrogen fixation in the subtropical East China Sea (ECS) and the southern Yellow Sea (YS) were measured using ¹⁵N₂ tracer assay during June and July 2006. Depth-integrated nitrogen fixation (2 to 221 µmol N m⁻² d⁻¹) was highest in the oceanic main path of the Kuroshio Current in the northeastern ECS, and in the mesohaline (surface salinity 30 to 34) stations. Very little N₂ fixation was encountered in the low-salinity (surface salinity <30) area, and we suggest that N₂ fixation was hindered by the nutrient conditions (lack of ‘excess’ phosphate relative to nitrate, xsPO₄ = [PO₄] − [NO₃]/16) near the Changjiang (Yangtze River) mouth. In the mesohaline waters, N₂ fixation was positively correlated with the vertical density (σ_t) gradient in the upper water column (30 m), indicating that N₂ fixation can also be controlled by physical regime, and enhanced water column stratification may promote N₂ fixation during summer. N₂ fixation met 0.01 to 4.6% of nitrogen demand by primary production, suggesting that N₂ fixation was not a major contributor to primary production in the study area. Estimated new N flux by N₂ fixation to the ECS continental shelf (13 Gg N) during summer is at the same order of magnitude as atmospheric deposition, but much lower than either the Kuroshio subsurface water upwelling or the Changjiang riverine input.

KEY WORDS: Nitrogen fixation · East China Sea · Southern Yellow Sea · ¹⁵N₂ assay