Prof. Jianping GAN

Semi-enclosed marginal South China Sea and shelf seas of Bohai, Yellow and East China Seas are linked together by Taiwan Strait to form the China Seas. It connects with western Pacific Ocean by shelf break and Luzon Strait, and with terrestrial inputs by big Changjiang and Pearl River estuaries. The circulation in the China Seas is mainly driven by the south-east Asia monsoon, but largely modulated by intrusive current from Kuroshio on seaside, by buoyancy from the estuaries on landside and by highly variable current associated with flow-topography (effect) interaction over the shelf. This circulation imports chemical constituents of different properties from land and open ocean basin, mixes with waters in the China Seas and forms an active biogeochemical response.

Prof. Gan and his group have been conducting hard-core science study of ocean circulation, marine ecosystem dynamics and numerical ocean modeling in the China Seas. Besides focusing on the physical processes over the vast continental shelf in the China Seas, our study widely covers the oceanic research topics in estuaries/bays and in the basins, and inter-links the processes over the estuary-shelf-basin. We have also developed interdisciplinary research in coupled physical-biogeochemical dynamics through numerical modeling, field measurement and process study in China Seas.