Journal Article
Spatio-Temporal Variability of Key Habitat Drivers in China’s Coastal Waters
Shuhui Cao; Yingchao Dang; Xuan Ban; Yadong Zhou; Jiahuan Luo; Jiazhi Zhu; Fei Xiao
Journal of Marine Science and Engineering · Vol. 13, Issue 10 · pp. 1874 · 2025
Abstract
China’s coastal fisheries face challenges to their sustainability due to climate and human-induced pressures on key habitat drivers. This study provides an 18-year (2003–2020) assessment of six key ecological and data-available environmental factors (sea-surface temperature (SST), salinity, transparency, currents (eastward velocity, EV; northward velocity, NV), and net primary productivity (NPP), selected for their ecological relevance and data availability, across the Bohai, Yellow, and East China Seas at a spatial resolution of 0.083°. Non-parametric trend tests and seasonal climatologies were applied using MODIS-Aqua and CMEMS data with a refined quasi-analytical algorithm (QAA-v6). The results show distinct gradients: SST ranging from 9 to 13 °C (Bohai Sea) to >20 °C (East China Sea); transparency ranging from