Monthly variations of hydrographic structures and water mass distribution off the Doto area, Japan

Monthly variations of hydrographic structures and water mass distributions were investigated over a nearly 30-year period (January 1982–March 2011) off the Doto area, Japan, to examine temporal evolutions and devolutions of representative water masses in this area. In the continental shelf area, the Coastal Oyashio Water (COW) was distributed along the coast during January–May, when COW has been modified by relatively higher salinity water, which may have originated from the Oyashio Water (OW) off the Kuril Islands. On the other hand, the Surface COW (S-COW) may have formed with COW heated by solar radiation, simultaneously mixing with the Tokachi River freshwater and OW in the continental shelf area, and the area of this S-COW spread offshoreward during June and July, and stayed in the offshore area during June and October. Although coastal density current structures, probably due to the Modified Soya Warm Current Water (M-SWCW) inflows, were conspicuous in the continental shelf area during August–October, those structures were weak after November. These weakening structures may be due to developed surface mixed layer caused by surface cooling, and decay of volume transport of the Soya Warm Current in the Okhotsk Sea, and such weakening accordingly may lead to weakening of higher salinity water inflows from the upstream regions. M-SWCW was radically replaced by COW during December and January with rapid salinity decreases, which suggest extremely lower salinity water inflows, probably due to influences of the East Sakhalin Current Water.