Long-term ocean time-series stations have significantly advanced our understanding of ocean–climate interactions, yet marginal seas remain underrepresented in global observing networks. The East Sea (Japan Sea) provides a valuable natural laboratory, characterized by rapid ventilation, oxygen-rich deep waters, and sensitivity to climate forcing. Recent evidence of weakening deep-water formation and a decline in the uptake of a...

The Korea Strait (KS) is a crucial marine passage for transporting heat, salt, and materials from the South Sea to the East Sea. The Tsushima Warm Water (TWW) and Korea Strait Bottom Cold Water (KSBCW) are major water masses that flow across the strait, but their effects on prokaryotic communities have been unclear. We used high-throughput sequencing to study the impact of TWW and KSBCW on prokaryotic composition and metabolic...

Nitrous oxide (N 2 O) is an important greenhouse gas emitted in significant volumes by the Pacific Ocean. However, the relationship between N 2 O dynamics and environmental drivers in the subtropical western North Pacific Ocean (STWNPO) remains poorly understood. We investigated the distribution of N 2 O and its production as well as the related mechanisms at the surface (0–200 m), intermediate (200–1500 m), and deep (1500–577...

Although environmental drivers are known to shape the abundance and distribution of bacterial communities in the East Sea, the effects of physical processes have not been directly studied. Here, we aimed to examine the influences of water mass mixing (summer) and eddy circulation (winter) on the surface bacterial communities of the Ulleung Basin (UB), East Sea, based on the metagenomic approach. Overall, 490,087 operational ta...