Remote impacts of 2009 and 2015 El Nino on oceanic and biological processes in a marginal sea of the Northwestern Pacific

Abstract

The significance of long-term teleconnections derived from the anomalous climatic conditions of El Nino has been a highly debated topic, where the remote response of coastal hydrodynamics and marine ecosystems to El Nino conditions is not completely understood. The 14-year long data from a ship-borne acoustic Doppler current profiler was used to examine the El Nino's impact, in particular, 2009 and 2015 El Nino events, on oceanic and biological processes in coastal regions across the Korea/Tsushima Strait. Here, it was revealed that the summer volume transport could be decreased by 8.7% (from 2.46 +/- 0.39 to 2.24 +/- 0.26 Sv) due to the anomalous northerly winds in the developing year of El Nino. Furthermore, the fall mean volume backscattering strength could be decreased by 1.8% (from - 97.09 +/- 2.14 to - 98.84 +/- 2.10 dB) due to the decreased surface solar radiation after the El Nino events. Overall, 2009 and 2015 El Nino events remotely affected volume transport and zooplankton abundance across the Korea/Tsushima Strait through climatic teleconnections.