Key Processes and Sustainable Mechanisms of Ecosystem Food Production in the Coastal Ocean of China

The scientists involved in this program will carry out integrated studies among multidisciplinary subjects by focusing on such a core as the coupling mechanism of the marine biogeochemical cycles of biogenic elements and the end-to-end food web in the China seas so as to comprehend the supporting, regulating and producing functions of food production, and to understand the sustainable mechanisms in the coastal ocean ecosystems of China seas from the perspectives of both anthropogenic impacts and natural changes.

The major scientific questions to be dealt with are: the biogeochemical processes of food production, the physical mechanisms of biogenic element cycle and supplement, coupling mechanism of primary production with major biogeochemical processes, food web trophodynamics of major biological functional groups. The research activities will mainly aim at some unique sub-ecosystems in the Yellow Sea and the East China Sea. Started with studies on ecological capacity, the following four foci will be deployed: the supporting role of main biogeochemical processes in food production; key physical processes of biogenic element cycle and supplement; primary production coupling with main biogeochemical processes; food production processes of biological function groups together with their sustainable models.