AEI prepress abstract   -  DOI: https://doi.org/10.3354/aei00394

ABSTRACT: During summer, there is great spatial variability in bottom water temperature on the northern shelf of the Yellow Sea. This variability is associated with a thermal front along the shelf. Oscillatory currents from the semidiurnal and fortnightly period tides transport water masses laterally, resulting in oscillations of bottom water temperature at fixed positions with sometimes large amplitudes. Temperature variations as demonstrated in the present work can cause damage to bottom cultured scallops. In particular, in the scallop sea ranching area near the Zhangzidao Island, such oscillations are evident in late summer. We have constructed a spatial index of aggregated temperature variability from current model results identifying how the temporal variability during the summer period varies in space. This knowledge can be useful both in selecting favorable ranching areas and in designing laboratory stress experiments on aquaculture candidate species.