Tuesday April 2, 2024
PhysOrg —
Tropical cyclones, also known as hurricanes and typhoons, are meteorological phenomena that occur over tropical and subtropical oceans experiencing low atmospheric pressure, where water vapor from the warm oceans condenses to produce spiraling cloud formations hundreds of meters wide. The resulting heavy rain and wind speeds exceeding 74 miles per hour can bring devastation to communities in their path when these tropical storms make landfall.
However, tropical cyclones also have distinct impacts on the marine realm. New research, published in Frontiers in Marine Science, has investigated the link between these events and primary productivity in our oceans.
Wen Yang, of East China Normal University, and colleagues focused specifically on the East China Sea, Pacific Ocean, to determine how the cycling of oxygen and nutrients is affected when a tropical storm passes through the region. Approximately 46% of tropical cyclones in the East China Sea make landfall along the country’s east coastline.