Abstract:
Dimethyl sulfide (DMS) sea-to-air exchange has an important contribution to global climate and environmental changes. This paper estimated the DMS fluxes in the Yellow and East China Seas, and analyzed their spatial and temporal distribution based on the published data from 2005 to 2017, combined with ERA-interim (European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts Interim Re-Analysis) wind speed data. The results show that the average annual sea-to-air fluxes of the South Yellow and the East China seas are (8.63±4.90) μmol/(m
2·d) and (12.77±8.42) μmol/(m
2·d), respectively. Except for autumn, the East China Sea DMS flux is higher than that of the South Yellow Sea. The seasonal variations of sea-to-air flux are significant, with the largest in summer and the smallest in winter. The DMS flux of the South Yellow Sea in autumn is higher than that in spring, and the flux of the East China Sea is higher in spring than that in autumn. Based on the variance decomposition, the contribution of each factor to the sea-to-air flux is further discussed. In the South Yellow Sea, the DMS sea-to-air flux in spring is controlled by both the surface DMS concentration and transfer coefficient. The transfer coefficient has a greater impact on the flux in summer and winter. In the East China Sea, the sea-to-air flux in spring is mainly affected by the interaction between the transfer coefficient and the DMS concentration. Moreover, the flux in summer is controlled by the surface DMS concentration, and the transfer coefficient in autumn and winter has a greater impact on the flux. The South Yellow and the East China seas account for approximately 0.30% of the global ocean area, with DMS emissions of 0.1461 TgS/a, accounting for 0.52% of the global ocean DMS emissions.