This book aims to share newly obtained results and information on regional oceanography of the South China Sea by leading experts in fields such as water mass, circulation, mesoscale eddies, near-inertial motion, upwelling, mixing, continental shelf waves, internal waves and fronts. These comprehensive results can provide new insights on global and regional climate change.

This collection of 52 papers presents the state-of-the-art of Oceanology of China Seas, including Yellow Sea, East China Sea and South China Sea. The papers are published in two volumes comprising six parts: Volume 1: Physical Oceanography, Marine Chemistry and Marine Biology. Volume 2: Marine Geology, Coastal Research and Marine Physics and Technology. The purpose of this book is to introduce to the world the most representative research of Chinese oceanographers and provide marine developers with a significant reference work. For marine scientists and developers at oceanographic institutions, academia and naval research establishments. It will also be of value to the oil company geologist having an interest in the exploration of China Seas.

ZENG Cheng-kui (C. K. TSENG) Research Professor; Director Emeritus illStitllte of Oceanology, Academia Sillica Qillgdao 26607 J, China Ten years ago I was invited by Professor John Steele, Director of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute of the U. S. A. to write a preface for the special issue on "Oceanography in China" for the Oceanus. I was then the Director of the Institute of Oceanology, Academia Sinica. I gladly appreciated the honor, and in the preface I briefly enumerated the history of oceanology, or oceanography according to the American custom, in China dividing it into four stages: the founding stage 1950-1956, the growing stage 1956-1964, the partial expanding stage 1965-1978, and the elevation stage since 1978 (Tseng, 1983/84). The founding stage of Chinese oceanofogy should actually start in 1931 with the establishment of the short-life Chinese Marine Biological Association in old China. The following twenty years in Chinese history between 1931 and 1959 comprised a very memorable period in China, badly marked by the World War II, and the 1946-1950 civil war. Some scattered research in marine biology was conducted in phycology, invertebrate zoology and ichthyology, mostly in taxonomy. A little work was devoted to delta geology and tidal and seawater temperature records. Two expeditions were organized and sent by the National Central Academy of Sciences to the Bohai Sea in 1935 and by the Beijing Academy of Sciences to the Jiaozhou Bay in 1936, both engaged principally in marine biological research.

Pinxian Wang and Qianyu Li The South China Sea (SCS) (Fig. 1. 1) offers a special attraction for Earth scientists world-wide because of its location and its well-preserved hemipelagic sediments. As the largest one of the marginal seas separating Asia from the Paci?c, the largest continent from the largest ocean, the SCS functions as a focal point in land-sea int- actions of the Earth system. Climatically, the SCS is located between the Western Paci?c Warm Pool, the centre of global heating at the sea level, and the Tibetan Plateau, the centre of heating at an altitude of 5,000m. Geomorphologically, the SCS lies to the east of the highest peak on earth, Zhumulangma or Everest in the Himalayas (8,848m elevation) and to the west of the deepest trench in the ocean, Philippine Trench (10,497m water depth) (Wang P. 2004). Biogeographically, the SCS belongs to the so-called “East Indies Triangle” where modern marine and terrestrial biodiversity reaches a global maximum (Briggs 1999). Among the major marginal sea basins from the west Paci?c, the SCS presents some of the best conditions for accumulating complete paleoclimatic records in its hemipelagic deposits. These records are favorable for high-resolution pa- oceanographic studies because of high sedimentation rates and good carbonate preservation. It may not be merely a coincidence that two cores from the southern 14 SCS were among the ?rst several cores in the world ocean used by AMS C dating for high-resolution stratigraphy (Andree et al. 1986; Broecker et al. 1988).

The Japan and East China seas are both marginal seas, but have different oceanographical features: the former is a deep basin filled with polar water but a jet-like current in the upper layer, and the latter is a wide continental shelf with two large rivers. This book provides the first synthesis of information on the circulation, hydrography, coastal phenomena, tides, turbidity and wind waves of these seas. Circulation caused by wind, pressure distributions and other effects is discussed with the aid of analytical, numerical and hydraulic models, many of which can also be applied to problems in other seas. New oceanographic techniques covered include remote sensing, drifter tracking and moored current meter system, providing information useful to both researchers and students.

This book summarizes achievements of the study on circulation and air–sea interaction and development of the ocean observation network in the South China Sea in the last 20 years, thus serving as a comprehensive reference book to understand the dynamic environment in the SCS. It consists of seven chapters, briefly reviewing our understanding of the SCS circulation and air–sea interaction in chapter 1, then describing in detail the upper layer circulation from large scale (SCS through flow, SCS western boundary current, etc.), to meso- and submeso-scale in Chapters 2 and 5, dilute river plume and coastal upwelling over the shelf in Chapter 3, deep ocean circulation in Chapter 4, tropical cyclone activities and air–sea flux at the interface in Chapter 6, and the construction of the observation network and database in Chapter 7. Besides the basic features of these physical processes, the book also discusses their variations and fundamental dynamics. Thus, it is written in a way that meets the different information demands from researchers working in various marine related fields.