An empirical primary production model for the East China Sea

A unique regional empirical model for the calculation of primary production in the East China Sea (ECS) was developed in this study. It was determined that the euphotic zone-integrated primary production (IP) can be calculated by using[IP]=2.512[CSPoptBKd−1]0.957,where CS, PoptB and Kd represent sea surface chlorophyll a concentration, optimal specific primary productivity and the mean downwelling attenuation coefficient within the euphotic zone, respectively. The parameter, PoptB, can be further described as a function of sea surface temperature or daily total photosynthetic available radiation. In the explanation of the variability of measured IP, a higher correlation coefficient was obtained when PoptB was modeled using daily total photosynthetic available radiation. The present empirical production model developed here is particularly useful in the estimation of primary production in the ECS using satellite information.