Chinese researchers have recently published a monograph on hermatypic corals in the Zhongsha Islands in the South China Sea, providing valuable first-hand information for studying their diversity and distribution pattern.
From 2019 to 2021, the South China Sea Institute of Oceanology under the Chinese Academy of Sciences organized a series of comprehensive scientific expedition voyages to the Zhongsha Islands. In the process, experts identified and recorded a total of 200 hermatypic coral species belonging to 16 families and 58 genera.
The monograph published by the institute discusses the geographical and environmental characteristics of the Zhongsha Islands, and the research history and present situation of hermatypic corals in the Zhongsha Islands.
Combined with the latest research results of the international hermatypic coral taxonomy, the monograph describes the biological characteristics, habitat and distribution, and endangered categories of each coral, and displays the corals' underwater ecological photos in situ.
The monograph also calls for strengthening the monitoring and conservation of the coral reef ecosystem in the Zhongsha Islands to protect the precious offshore coral reef resources. (Xinhua)
The analysis of Prof. WU Renguang and PhD candidate Ms. CHEN Zhang from the Institute of Atmospheric Physics showed that the South China Sea is one region in northern Tropics where the SST displays the largest intraseaonal variability in winter.
IAP scientists investigate the variability and relationship between intraseasonal sea surfacetemperature (SST) and surface net heat flux (NHF) variations in the South China Sea and western North Pacic regions. It is shown that the intraseasonal SST variations and their coherence with surface heat flux variations display large differences between winter and summer and between 10–20 day and 30–60 day timescales.
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