Coastlines are fundamental to humans for habitation, commerce and natural resources. Many coastal ecosystem disasters, caused by extreme sea surface temperature (SST), were reported when the global climate shifted from global warming to global surface warming hiatus after 1998. The task of understanding the coastal SST variations within the global context is an urgent matter. Our study on the global coastal SST from 1982 to 2013 revealed a significant cooling trend in the low and mid latitudes (31.4% of the global coastlines) after 1998, while 17.9% of the global coastlines changed from a cooling trend to a warming trend concurrently. The trend reversals in the Northern Pacific and Atlantic coincided with the phase shift of Pacific Decadal Oscillation and North Atlantic Oscillation, respectively. These coastal SST changes are larger than the changes of the global mean and open ocean, resulting in a fast increase of extremely hot/cold days and thus extremely hot/cold events. Meanwhile, a continuous increase of SST was detected for a considerable portion of coastlines (46.7%) with a strengthened warming along the coastlines in the high northern latitudes. This suggests the warming still continued and strengthened in some regions after 1998, but with a weaker pattern in the low and mid latitudes.

For this paper, a coupled physical‐biological model was developed in order to study the mechanisms of the winter bloom in the Luzon Strait (referred as LZB). Based on a simulation for January 2010, the results showed that the model was capable of reproducing the key features of the LZB, such as the location, inverted‐V shape, twin‐core structure and bloom intensity. The simulation showed that the LZB occurred during the relaxation period of intensified northeasterly winds, when the deepened mixed layer started to shoal. Nutrient diagnostics showed that vertical mixing was responsible for the nutrient supply to the upper ∼40 m layer, while subsurface upwelling supplied nutrients to the region below the mixed layer. Hydrodynamic diagnostics showed that the advection of relative vorticity (RV) primarily contributed to the subsurface upwelling. The RV advection was resulted from an offshore jet, which was associated with a northeasterly wind, flowed across the ambient RV field.

Biological productivity in the summer Vietnam boundary upwelling system in the western South China Sea, as in many coastal upwelling systems, is strongly modulated by wind. However, the role of ocean circulation and mesoscale eddies has not been elucidated. Here, we show a close spatiotemporal covariability between primary production and kinetic energy. High productivity is associated with high kinetic energy, which accounts for ∼15 % of the production variability. Results from a physical–biological coupled model reveal that the elevated kinetic energy is linked to the strength of the current separation from the coast. In the low production scenario, the circulation is not only weaker but also shows weak separation. In the higher production case, the separated current forms an eastward jet into the interior South China Sea, and the associated southern recirculation traps nutrients and favors productivity. When separation is absent, the model shows weakened circulation and eddy activity, with ∼21 % less nitrate inventory and ∼16 % weaker primary productivity.

In winter, an offshore flow of the coastal current can be inferred from satellite and in situ data over the western Taiwan Bank. The dynamics related to this offshore flow are examined here using observations as well as analytical and numerical models. The currents can be classified into three regimes. The downwind (i.e., southward) cold coastal current remains attached to the coast when the northeasterly wind stress is stronger than a critical value depending on the upwind (i.e., northward) large-scale pressure gradient force. By contrast, an upwind warm current appears over the Taiwan Bank when the wind stress is less than the critical pressure gradient force. The downwind coastal current and upwind current converge and the coastal current deflects offshore onto the bank during a moderate wind. Analysis of the vorticity balance shows that the offshore transport is a result of negative bottom stress curl that is triggered by the positive vorticity of the two opposite flows. The negative bottom stress curl is reinforced by the gentle slope over the bank, which enhances the offshore current. Composite analyses using satellite observations show cool waters with high chlorophyll in the offshore current under moderate wind. The results of composite analyses support the model findings and may explain the high productivity over the western bank in winter.

In order to understand the fate of nutrients in the Taiwan Strait during summer, we built a coupled physical‐biological numerical ocean model, which can capture the basic hydrographic and biological features within the strait. The nutrient that we chose to model is dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN). The model includes individual reservoirs for nitrate (NO₃) and ammonium (NH₄). Both the observational evidence and model results show that NO₃ in the strait originates primarily from the upwelling subsurface water in the northern South China Sea (SCS) that enters the strait via the eastern and western routes separated by the Taiwan Bank. The coupled physical and biological effects on the NO₃ transport at these two routes are highlighted in the study. For the western route, the shallow topography and the coastal upwelling intensify the biological uptake of NO₃ in the whole water column. Consequently, the nitrogenous contribution by this route is mainly in form of the particulate organic nitrogen (PON). In contrast, NO₃ is transported conservatively below the nitricline at the deep eastern route, contributing the whole NO₃ supply in the TWS. The model estimates the fluxes of DIN and PON into the TWS, from the northern SCS, are 1.8 and 4 kmol s⁻¹, respectively. Over half (∼1 kmol s⁻¹) of the DIN is synthesized into PON by the phytoplankton in the strait. Overall, this study estimates the physical and biological effects on the nutrient transport in the TWS during summer.