Advances in Seasonal Variations and Controls of the Air-sea CO2 Flux in the South China Sea

Marine carbon cycle of the South China Sea is an important part of global carbon cycle. Researches on the air-sea CO₂ flux in the South China Sea will help us understand the global carbon cycle and improve the global carbon system parameter database. This paper concisely summarized the changes of partial pressure of CO₂ (pCO₂), air-sea CO₂ fluxes (FCO₂), and related environmental factors in four regions in domains in the South China Sea. The low-salinity area of the upper reaches of the Pearl River estuary in the northern of South China Sea shelf area acted as a strong source of atmospheric CO₂, with high pCO₂（405.3~810.6 Pa）all year round. The lower area of the Pearl River estuary (salinity > 33.7) acted as a weak sink of CO₂ in winter, with relatively low pCO₂ （35.2~37.0 Pa). The northern slope/basin in the South China Sea acted as a source of CO₂ in warm seasons with a relatively high pCO₂ (45.0 Pa), and acted as a sink of CO₂ in cold seasons with a relatively low pCO₂ (34.7 Pa). The west of the Luzon Strait acted as a sink of CO₂ in spring, while it acted as a source of CO₂ in other seasons, with relative high pCO₂ (38.4~47.5 Pa) in winter. The central/southern basin in the South China Sea acted as sources of CO₂, with relative high pCO₂ (41.0 Pa) all the year. Generally, the estimation of annual sea-air CO₂ fluxes showed that most domains in the South China Sea served as weak sources of atmospheric CO₂. In the future, more researches should be focused on the time-series of sea surface pCO₂ and the remote sensing of the sea-air CO₂ fluxes.