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In recent decades, acidification of the open ocean has shown a consistent increase. However, analysis of long-term data in coastal seawater shows that the pH is highly variable because of coastal processes and anthropogenic carbon inputs. It is therefore important to understand how anthropogenic carbon inputs and other natural or anthropogenic factors influence the temporal trends in pH in coastal seawater. Using water quality data collected at 289 monitoring sites as part of the Water Pollution Control Program, we evaluated the long-term trends of the pHinsitu in Japanese coastal seawater at ambient temperature from 1978 to 2009. We found that the annual maximum pHinsitu, which generally represents the pH of surface waters in winter, had decreased at 75 % of the sites but had increased at the remaining sites. The temporal trend in the annual minimum pHinsitu, which generally represents the pH of subsurface water in summer, also showed a similar distribution, although it was relatively difficult to interpret the trends of annual minimum pHinsitu because the sampling depths differed between the stations. The annual maximum pHinsitu decreased at an average rate of −0.0024 yr−1, with relatively large deviations (0.0042 yr−1) from the average value. Detailed analysis suggested that the decrease in pH was caused partly by warming of winter surface waters in Japanese coastal seawater. The pH, when normalized to 25 ∘C, however, showed decreasing trends, suggesting that dissolved inorganic carbon from anthropogenic sources is increasing in Japanese coastal seawater.

This study assessed the effects of constant and diurnally fluctuating pCO2 on development and shell formation of larval abalone Haliotis discus hannai. The larvae was exposed to different pCO2 conditions; constant [450, 800, or 1200 μatm in the first experiment (Exp. I), 450 or 780 μatm in the second experiment (Exp. II)] or diurnally fluctuating pCO2 (800 ± 400 or 1200 ± 400 μatm in Exp. I, 450 ± 80, 780 ± 200 or 780 ± 400 μatm in Exp. II). Mortality, malformation rates or shell length of larval abalone were not significantly different among the 450, 800, and 800 ± 400 μatm pCO2 treatments. Meanwhile, significantly higher malformation rates and smaller shells were detected in the 1200 and 1200 ± 400 μatm pCO2 treatments than in the 450 μatm pCO2 treatment. The negative impacts were greater in the 1200 ± 400 μatm than in the 1200 μatm. Shell length and malformation rate of larval abalone were related with aragonite saturation state (Ω-aragonite) in experimental seawater, and greatly changed around 1.1 of Ω-aragonite which corresponded to 1000–1300 μatm pCO2. These results indicate that there is a pCO2 threshold associated with Ω-aragonite in the seawater, and that pCO2 fluctuations produce additional negative impacts on abalone when above the threshold. Clear relationships were detected between abalone fitness and the integrated pCO2 value over the threshold, indicating that the effects of OA on development and shell formation of larval abalone can be determined by intensity and time of exposure to pCO2 over the threshold.

We used an eddy-permitting three-dimensional ocean ecosystem model and applied it in the western North Pacific to understand the seasonal variations and horizontal distributions of the air–sea CO2 flux and difference in the partial pressure between sea water and the atmosphere (∆pCO2). The high-resolution model reproduced the observed zonal belt of strong CO2 uptake in the mid-latitude (30–45°N) western North Pacific including the Kuroshio extension and mixed water regions, which was difficult to show in previous coarse-resolution models. The East Asian winter monsoon, an important phenomenon in the western North Pacific, affects the seasonal CO2 air–sea gas exchange with a high (low) gas transfer coefficient in winter (summer). In the subtropical region, ∆pCO2 is negative in winter and positive in summer as a result of the temperature effect. Combination of seasonal change in gas transfer coefficient with ∆pCO2 suppresses CO2 release in the subtropical region, and vice versa in the subarctic region (i.e., suppresses CO2 uptake). That is, the East Asian winter monsoon in the western North Pacific contributes to the reduction of the annual CO2 flux through the seasonal change in the gas transfer coefficient, leading to an overall annual CO2 uptake in the subtropical region and CO2 release in the subarctic region.

The Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant (FNPP) accident that followed the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011 resulted in the release of enormous quantities of anthropogenic radionuclides, especially radioactive cesium (134Cs and 137Cs) into the ocean off the east coast of Japan. FNPP-derived radioactive Cs may have consequently accumulated within marine food webs via seawater intake and predator–prey interactions. We provide evidence of the temporal variability in 134Cs and 137Cs concentrations in seawater and zooplankton samples collected in coastal waters off Joban-Sanriku, in Sendai Bay, and in the Oyashio region between June 2011 and December 2013. In Sendai Bay, seawater 134Cs and 137Cs concentrations exceeded 1 Bq/kg in June 2011 and rapidly decreased during the study period. 134Cs and 137Cs concentrations in zooplankton were also high in June 2011, up to 23 Bq/kg-wet and also decreased during the study period, although at a slower rate than seawater 134Cs and 137Cs concentrations. Regarding 137Cs concentrations, the difference in the rate of decrease between seawater and zooplankton resulted in a high apparent concentration ratio (aCR) for zooplankton. The observed relation between 137Cs in seawater and the aCR of zooplankton were good indicators of the progress of 137Cs contamination in zooplankton from the beginning of the FNPP accident to the restoration phase.

This study assessed the effects of constant and diurnally fluctuating pCO

Spatial high-resolution estimates of biogenic oxygen were obtained by measuring the concentration of dissolved oxygen, nitrogen and argon during the spring phytoplankton bloom at 21 observation points in the western North Pacific in the area of the Oyashio and Kuroshio Currents off the coast of Hokkaido-Tohoku, Japan. This area extends over approximately 600 km. The test region was divided into 6 mesoscale-wide groups (approximately 20–150 km wide) of observation stations based on variation in the temperature and salinity of the seawater. As suggested by an analysis of the hydrographic data, the area of which water temperature was lower than around the area was found in the Oyashio–Kuroshio mixing area. In the area, vertical water mixing between the warm mixed layer and cold sub-mixed layer occurred. The biogenic oxygen also varied horizontally at mesoscale intervals. The variation was caused by vertical mixing, because the water masses of the mixed layer and sub-mixed layer had positive and negative biogenic oxygen values, respectively. A spatial high-resolution method for estimating the spatial high-resolution net oxygen production rates ( NOP ) within the mixed layer using a time-stepped model with biogenic oxygen and the physical data was proposed. The estimated NOP varied widely, even within the same water mass group, and ranged from − 23.6 ± 6.0 to 252.7 ± 68.2 mmol/m 2 /day. Therefore, spatial high-resolution NOP estimates are imperative to analyze biological production in areas with complex water mass structures.

The Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant accident in March 2011 released radiocaesium (137Cs and 134Cs) into the North Pacific Ocean. Meridional transects of the vertical distribution of radiocaesium in seawater were measured along 147 °E and 155 °E in October–November 2012, 19 months after the accident. These measurements revealed subsurface peaks in radiocaesium concentrations at locations corresponding to two mode waters, Subtropical Mode Water and Central Mode Water. Mode water is a layer of almost vertically homogeneous water found over a large geographical area. Here we show that repeated formation of mode water during the two winter seasons after the Fukushima accident and subsequent outcropping into surface water transported radiocaesium downward and southward to subtropical regions of the North Pacific. The total amount of Fukushima-derived 134Cs within Subtropical Mode Water, decay-corrected to April 2011, was estimated to be 4.2 ± 1.1 PBq in October–November 2012. This amount of 134Cs corresponds to 22–28% of the total amount of 134Cs released to the Pacific Ocean.

We used an up-to-date, a high accuracy CO2 manipulation system to investigate the sensitivity of organisms to CO2 acidification, rearing marine calcifiers under elevated CO2 in running water. We evaluated the effects of elevated partial pressures of carbon dioxide (pCO2) in seawater on larvae of the commercially important marine gastropod Ezo abalone Haliotis discus hannai. In larval Ezo abalone, no effect of exposure to

In this study, we examined the relationship between the low salinity water in the shelf region of the southern Okhotsk Sea which was seasonally sampled (0-200 m), and fluxes of low salinity water from Aniva Bay. To express the source of freshwater mixing in the surface layer, we applied normalized total alkalinity (NTA) and stable isotopes of seawater as chemical tracers. NTA-S diagrams indicate that NTA of low salinity water in the upper 30 m layer just off the Soya Warm Current is clearly higher than in the far offshore region in summer and autumn. Using NTA-S regression lines, we could deduce that the low salinity and high NTA water in the upper layer originates from Aniva Bay. For convenience, we defined this water as the Aniva Surface Water (ASW) with values S < 32, NTA > 2450 μmol kg^[-1]. Formation and transport processes of ASW are discussed using historical data. The interaction between the maximum core of high NTA water on the bottom slope of eastern Aniva Bay and an anticyclonic eddy at the mouth of Aniva Bay are concluded to control ASW formation. Upwelling of the Cold Water Belt water at the tip of Cape Krillion is considered to cause ASW outflow from Aniva Bay.

We evaluated the dynamics of dissolved organic matter (DOM) and particulate organic matter (POM) at various stages of the spring bloom in the Oyashio region of the western subarctic Pacific Ocean by means of samples obtained during 3 cruises in April, May, and June 2003. In April, the average concentration (±1 SD) of nitrate plus nitrite ions was 23.3 ± 0.39 µmol l -1 in surface waters, and this decreased to below the detection limit (

We proposed an empirical equation of sea surface dimethylsulfide (DMS, nM) using sea surface temperature (SST, K), sea surface nitrate (SSN, μM) and latitude (L, °N) to reconstruct the sea surface flux of DMS over the North Pacific between 25°N and 55°N: ln DMS = 0.06346 · SST − 0.1210 · SSN − 14.11 · cos(L) − 6.278 (R2 = 0.63, p < 0.0001). Applying our algorithm to climatological hydrographic data in the North Pacific, we reconstructed the climatological distributions of DMS and its flux between 25 °N and 55 °N. DMS generally increased eastward and northward, and DMS in the northeastern region became to 2–5 times as large as that in the southwestern region. DMS in the later half of the year was 2–4 times as large as that in the first half of the year. Moreover, applying our algorithm to hydrographic time series datasets in the western North Pacific from 1971 to 2000, we found that DMS in the last three decades has shown linear increasing trends of 0.03 ± 0.01 nM year− 1 in the subpolar region, and 0.01 ± 0.001 nM year− 1 in the subtropical region, indicating that the annual flux of DMS from sea to air has increased by 1.9–4.8 μmol m− 2 year− 1. The linear increase was consistent with the annual rate of increase of 1% of the climatological averaged flux in the western North Pacific in the last three decades.

After the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant (FNPP) accident, which occurred in March of 2011, the National Research Institute of Fisheries Science (NRIFS) undertook emergent radioactivity monitoring of 63 samples of small epipelagic fishes (such as sardine and Japanese anchovy) collected by commercial fishery boats off the Kashima-Boso area (located to the south of the Fukushima coast) from 24 March 2011 to 21 March 2013. Fluctuations in the radiocesium concentration in fish muscles synchronized with the decreasing concentration from seawater near the fishing ground; the radiocesium concentration in fish muscles reached a maximum of 31 Bq/kg-wet in July 2011, after which it declined gradually. From 2012 to 2013, the radiocesium concentrations in fish muscles were low (0.58–0.63 Bq/kg-wet). Compared to the 137Cs concentration before the FNPP accident, 137Cs concentration in fish muscles in 2013 was still about 10 times higher, whereas it was about 4.5 times higher in seawater near the fishing ground in 2012.

This section introduces results of an investigation for radiocesium (134Cs and 137Cs) in sea sediment. The three-dimensional spatial distributions of radiocesium in sea sediment to a 14-cm core depth were surveyed from off the northern part of Ibaraki Prefecture to off Fukushima Prefecture with 5-min horizontal resolution in July 2012, approximately 16 months after the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant (FNPP) accident. A high concentration band was observed along the 100-m isobaths where the concentration of the 137Cs reached 1,240 Bq/kg-dry at the maximum and where vertical profiles of the concentration generally had an exponential-type decline with depth. The concentrations were very low at the area shallower than 100 m of depth north from the FNPP, where vertical concentration peaks often occurred in deeper layers. These horizontal and vertical distribution patterns are suggested to be mainly determined by the supplied amount of radiocesium from the radiocesium-contaminated bottom seawater and the ability of radiocesium adsorption as dependent on the grain size of the sediment.

We have performed an in situ test of the iron limitation hypothesis in the subarctic North Pacific Ocean. A single enrichment of dissolved iron caused a large increase in phytoplankton standing stock and decreases in macronutrients and dissolved carbon dioxide. The dominant phytoplankton species shifted after the iron addition from pennate diatoms to a centric diatom, Chaetoceros debilis , that showed a very high growth rate, 2.6 doublings per day. We conclude that the bioavailability of iron regulates the magnitude of the phytoplankton biomass and the key phytoplankton species that determine the biogeochemical sensitivity to iron supply of high-nitrate, low-chlorophyll waters.

Abundance, isotopic composition and morphological imprints of the planktonic foraminifera Globorotalia scitula (Brady) were closely examined for possible use as a novel reconstruction tool of chemical environments in sub-intermediate depth seawater in the past. Based on the MOCNES plankton tow observation of dwelling depths of G. scitula and the isotopic compositions together with hydrochemistry data, the empirical relations between isotopic disequilibria in carbon (Δδ13C=δ13CG. scitula−δ13CDIC) and oxygen (Δδ18O=δ18OG. scitula−δ18Ow) isotopes in the carbonate tests and the seawater δ18O and δ13C of dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC), respectively, are introduced. The morphological information such as pore density and porosity is also examined for significant relations to carbonate chemistry. Shell porosity is strongly correlated saturation state of calcite. The dissolution of living G. scitula tests may promote the observed isotopic differences as well as the increases in porosity. Δδ18O of G. scitula is found effectively to be linear function of both water temperature and calcite saturation state (Ω), and thereby temperature equation for G. scitula is provided, while Δδ13C of G. scitula is a linear function of only calcite saturation state. The equation was validated by using Globorotalia scitula collected by a sediment trap in intermediate water depths. Satisfactory agreements were found between observed and calculated Δδ18O from the empirical equations based on temperature and hydrochemistry data at sediment trap deployment site, indicating that the equation may be useful in paleo-environmental reconstruction of sub-intermediate water. The sediment trap observation further suggests that the abundance of G. scitula does not necessarily correspond to surface water productivity and to POC flux, but instead, it correlates well with the supply of fine organic matter, which appears to be a result of water convection. Thus, G. scitula may be an unambiguous and excellent paleo-environmental recorder for carbonate chemistry and for fine organic matter transport to the depths, if isotopic and morphological observations are combined.

We propose an approach to estimate the rate of increase of oceanic anthropogenic carbon inventory with CFC11 dating technique. This approach relies on the elapsed time from when the water lost contact with atmosphere as determined by CFC age. Furthermore, the assumption is made that it remains constant over a decadal time scale. Finally, we consider only the increase in anthropogenic carbon from one decade to another and not the entire change from the pre-industrial period to the present. The advantages and disadvantages of our approach are discussed. Using this approach, the spatial distributions of the rate of increase of the anthropogenic carbon inventory and the uptake rate of anthropogenic carbon in the North Pacific were obtained. The western North Pacific subtropical region exhibited a maximum in the rate of increase of the anthropogenic carbon inventory of more than 8 g C m−2 year−1 during 1988–1998, which was equivalent to 34% of the total uptake rate in the entire North Pacific. The net total uptake rate of anthropogenic carbon in the whole North Pacific increased with time and was 0.55±0.09 Pg C year−1 during 1988–1998 indicating that the North Pacific absorbs 24% of the whole oceanic uptake of anthropogenic carbon.

The temporal variation of the total dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) content in the western North Pacific is investigated by comparing the DIC distribution obtained from the data sets of three different periods, the GEOSECS data observed in 1973, the CO 2 dynamics Cruise data observed in 1982, and recent Japanese data sets observed during the early 1990s. The overall feature of the signal of temporal DIC change during 1973 and early 1990s agreed with that of former studies, and did not significantly change with the calculation scheme (the grid-selection method vs. the multiple regression method). The observed increase in DIC among the different time scales showed a good inner consistency, which also indicates the stability of the method used in the DIC change calculation. The apparent rate of increase of the DIC inventory in the upper 1000 m water column, however, differed significantly by the data set used for the calculation: It was 5.6±2.4 g C/m 2 /year, based on the data comparison between 1982 and the early 1990s, while it became 7.6±2.4 g C/m 2 /year when based on the data between 1973 and the early 1990s. This result provides us an information about the data-dependency on the former estimation of temporal DIC change.

Cross sections of the total carbonate (TC), titration alkalinity (TA), and pH were observed during the WOCE/JGOFS-P2 cruise (30°N, 130°E –122°W). The increases in TC in the years since 1973 are calculated by the comparison of TC data observed during P2 and those observed during the Geochemical Ocean Section Study. At stations east of 170°W, TC has increased proportionally to the atmospheric increase of CO2 in water shallower than the σθ = 26.20 density surface, while at stations west of 180°E TC had increased proportionally to the atmospheric increase only in water shallower than the σθ = 25.40 density surface. Increase in the column inventory of TC is 143±32 gC/m2 on average and does not significantly differ with longitude.

Partial pressure of CO2 in surface sea water (pCO2) was measured continuously off Sanriku in May, 1997 by a new pCO2 measurement system. We have examined the relation of pCO2 to physical factors such as temperature, salinity and density, chemical and biological factors such as nutrients and carbonate system and chlorophylla. In the Kuroshio region pCO2 was not correlated to physical, chemical and biological factors in the range of 260 to 290 μatom. In transition water (Tr1) between Kuroshio and the Oyashio second branch, pCO2 was weakly correlated to physical factors and strongly correlated to nutrients. In transition water (Tr2) between the Oyashio first and second branches, pCO2 was highly correlated to temperature (SD: 10.9 μatom) and salinity (SD: 8.6 μatom) and also to nutrients. In transition water (Tr1+Tr2), pCO2 was highly multivariately correlated to temperature (T), salinity (S), chlorophylla (CH) (or nitrate+nitrite (N)) as follows, pCO2(μatom)= 10.8×T(°C)+27.7×S+2.57CH(μg/1) −769, R2= 0.86, SD = 20.9, or pCO2(μatom)= 3.9×T(°C)+25.5×S+16.0NO3(μM) −686, R2= 0.99, SD = 6.4. Moreover, pCO2 was predicted by only two factors, one physical (S) and the other chemical/biological (N) as follows: pCO2 (μatom)=32.8×S+19.4N−908, R2=0.97, SD=8.4. The pH measured at 25°C was well correlated with normalized pCO2 at a fixed temperature. In the Oyashio region pCO2 was decreased to 160 μatom, probably because of spring bloom, but was not correlated linearly to chlorophylla. The results obtained showed the possibility of estimating pCO2 of the Oyashio and transition regions in May by satellite remote sensing of SST, but the problem of estimation of pCO2 in Kuroshio water remains to be solved.

In the central part of the East China Sea, the activity of CO2 in the surface water and total carbonate, pH and alkalinity in the water column were determined in winter and autumn of 1993. The activity of CO2 in the continental shelf water was about 50 ppm lower than that of surface air. This decrease corresponds to the absorption of about 40 gC/m2/yr of atmospheric CO2 in the coastal zone or 1 GtC/yr in the global continental shelf, if this rate is applicable to entire coastal seas. The normalized total carbonate contents were higher in the water near the coast and near the bottom. This increase toward the bottom may be due to the organic matter deposited on the bottom. This conclusion is supported by the distribution of pH. The normalized alkalinity distribution also showed higher values in the near-coast water, but in the surface water, indicating the supply of bicarbonate from river water. The residence time of the East China Sea water, including the Yellow Sea water, has been calculated to be about 0.8 yr from the excess alkalinity and the alkalinity input. Using this residence time and the excess carbonate, we can estimate that the amount of dissolved carbonate transported from the coastal zone to the oceanic basin is about 70 gC/m2/yr or 2 GtC/yr/area-of-global-continental-shelf. This also means that the rivers transport carbon to the oceans at a rate of 30 gC/m2/yr of the coastal sea or 0.8 GtC/yr/ area-of-global shelf, the carbon consisting of dissolved inorganic carbonate and terrestrial organic carbon decomposed on the continental shelf.

The horizontal distribution of radioactive cesium (Cs) derived from the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant (FNPP) in the North Pacific is still unclear due to the limitation of direct measurement of the seawater in the open ocean. We present the result of direct observation of radioactive Cs in surface seawater collected from a broad area in the western and central North Pacific in July 2011, October 2011 and July 2012. We also conducted a simple particle tracking experiment to estimate the qualitative spatial distribution of radioactive Cs in the North Pacific. 134Cs was detected at 94 stations out of 123 stations, and 137Cs was detected at all stations. High 134Cs and 137Cs concentrations more than 10 m Bq kg−1 were observed in the area of the northern part of Kuroshio Extension at 144° E and 155° E in July 2011, in the area 147–175° E around 40° N in October 2011, and the northern part of Kuroshio Extension at 155° E and 175°30´ E in July 2012. Combining the result of direct observations and particle tracking experiment, the radioactive Cs derived from the FNPP had been dispersed eastward to the central North Pacific during 2011. It was considered from the horizontal distribution that radioactive Cs was dispersed not only eastward but also north- and southward in the central North Pacific. Pronounced dilution process of radioactive Cs from the FNPP during study period is suggested from temporal change in the activity ratio of 134Cs / 137Cs, which was decay-corrected on 6 April 2011, and relationships between radioactive Cs and temperature.

Sea water samples were collected from various depths in the North Pacific (40‐ 21°N) along 165°E in 1991. Their total carbonate (total dissolved carbonate species) contents were determined with random errors less than 0.2% by a coulometric method. The preformed carbonate contents defined by Chen (1982) were calculated from the obtained data and other observed data including potential temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen and total alkalinity. The same calculation was done for the GEOSECS data obtained in nearly the same region in 1973. The difference between the two data sets reveals that the preformed carbonate has increased by 180 ± 41 gC/m 2 during the last 18 years. This value is comparable or somewhat larger than 150 gC/m 2 obtained in the case that the ocean uptakes 3 GtC/yr for 18 years and distributes it equally among the world oceans. Based on the results, a hypothesis on the missing sink for the anthropogenic carbon dioxide is presented, in that the missing sink is the intermediate waters formed in the northern North Pacific and the Southern Ocean besides the deep waters formed in the North Atlantic and the Southern Ocean.

[1] Stable carbon isotopes of dissolved inorganic carbon (δ13CDIC), together with phosphate concentrations (PO43−) of the western North Pacific marginal area are presented. Although δ13CDIC controlled not only air-sea exchange but also biological activities, by subtracting PO43− as a biological factor from the δ13CDIC, the thermodynamic imprint on the carbon isotopic composition (δ13Cas) is used as a conservative tracer. The linear relationship between δ13Cas and temperature with the δ13Cas/temperature slope of −0.104‰/°C is observed in the North Pacific subtropical region. This relationship can be extended to the Weddell Sea deep waters. Therefore oceanic DIC is apparently in temperature-dependent isotopic equilibrium with atmospheric CO2. To characterize each water mass, the “isotopically labeled temperature” (Tiso), which is derived from δ13Cas-temperature relationship obtained for the subtropical gyre water and Weddell Sea Water, is introduced. In contrast, the δ13Cas-temperature relationship is not necessarily linear for the northern Japan Sea Water, the Kuroshio-Oyashio Mixed Water and the Okhotsk Sea Water. This nonlinearity implies apparent air-sea carbon isotopic disequilibria resulting from water cooling without accompanying air-sea carbon isotope equilibrium. By using the potential temperature (Tpot) and the Tiso, the source waters constituting intermediate waters (26.8σθ) have been estimated. The results clearly indicate that (1) the intermediate water in the southern Okhotsk Sea contains up to 20% Japan Sea Water, and that (2) “new” North Pacific Intermediate Water (NPIW) consists of Okhotsk Sea Water, subarctic gyre water, and “old” subtropical NPIW.