Seasonal Dynamics of Surface Dissolved Organic Matter in the South China Sea and the Straits of Malacca: Implications for Biogeochemical Province Delineation of Marginal Seas

Biogeochemical provinces are an important aid to identify homogeneous biogeochemical characteristics and underlying ecosystem dynamics in the open ocean. This macroscale approach, however, does not appear to be applicable to marginal seas for disregarding various small scale changes. Here, we adopted two observation schemes throughout the typical marginal seas, the South China Sea (SCS) and Straits of Malacca (MS), with continuous surface-water sampling during March and May 2018. Spatial and seasonal heterogeneity of hydrological and dissolved organic matter (DOM) properties was investigated. With a novel combination of chromophoric DOM index and classical biogeochemical parameters (temperature, salinity, chlorophyll-a, and bathymetry), we delineated five biogeochemical provinces in each season to integrate DOM pools and investigate region-specific and season-dependent biogeochemical processes. The results showed that the SCS basin was seasonally modulated by biological activities and photodegradation, resulting in the biologically active DOM pools. The western SCS seasonally received terrestrial DOM, subjected to the western boundary current under monsoon regulation. The MS was found to serve as an efficient carbon source of terrestrial substances, which exported to the northern Indian Ocean during the Northeast Monsoon. The delineation favored the simplification of complex biogeochemistry and allowed us to predict future trends in this dynamic system. Chromophoric DOM index was proven applicable to the delineation of marginal seas, that shed the light on the potential applications in biogeochemical provinces in dynamic systems.