Coastal region/seas atmospheric deposition

Sea-salt inputs are common in coastal regions. These salts have been introduced into the marine atmosphere from bubble bursting and breaking waves and are deposited on land with rain and dust fall. Small amounts of sea-salts are, however, also present in rainwater of central continental areas, thousands of miles from the sea. Sea-salt inputs have broadly similar, predominantly sodium chloride (NaCl), chemistry to the seawater from which they were derived. Thus, sodium or chloride ions can be used as a measure of sea-salt inputs to rainwater. Chloride concentrations in rain falling on oceanic islands are around 200pmolh, rain within 100 km of coastal continental areas contains around 10-100 pmolT1, while further inland chloride concentrations fall below 10 nmol I, but not to zero. 

Chinese scholars have started research into the transportation of nutrients to the ocean via the atmosphere and its influence on the marine ecosystem in recent years. There were clear seasonal variations for most of the ions, and the concentrations of major ions from mban area rainwater were apparently higher than those in remote regions. By in situ incubation experiments in the coastal Yellow Sea, the atmospheric deposition with high nitrogen and low phosphorus in the Yellow Sea area was the major nutrient resource for ph3doplankton in the mixed layer during the water stratification period in summer. 

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