Heat Flux Intensified Coastal Thermal Fronts in the East China Shelf Seas

Heat Flux Intensified Coastal Thermal Fronts in the East China Shelf Seas | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article Heat Flux Intensified Coastal Thermal Fronts in the East China Shelf Seas Qi Quan, Xueyang Chen, Lei Lin, Yiyang Ji, Dongyan Liu This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-8798245/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Under Review Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Oceanic thermal fronts (OTFs) in Large Marine Ecosystems worldwide have generally intensified over the past decade; however, the regional manifestations of these changes and the underlying physical mechanisms remain unclear. Using high-resolution sea surface temperature data from 2003 to 2024 and a mixed-layer heat budget model, we quantified the annual trends of ten quasi-stationary OTFs in the East China shelf seas during winter and diagnosed their thermodynamic controls. Seven coastal fronts have strengthened due to increased air-sea heat loss, primarily driven by latent and sensible heat fluxes. In contrast, three shelf and shelf-break fronts remained stable, owing to compensating warm advection. These contrasting trends are closely linked to climate modes: the intensified East Asian winter monsoon reinforced the coastal fronts, while the westward migration of the Kuroshio axis suppressed surface cooling, maintaining the stability of the shelf and shelf-break fronts. Given the ecological and biogeochemical significance of OTFs, the intensified coastal fronts could further influence spatial patterns of matter exchange and primary production in the ocean. Earth and environmental sciences/Ocean sciences/Physical oceanography Earth and environmental sciences/Ocean sciences/Marine biology Full Text Additional Declarations There is NO Competing Interest. Supplementary Files Supplementary.docx Supporting Information for Heat Flux Intensified Coastal Thermal Fronts in the East China Shelf Seas Cite Share Download PDF Status: Under Review Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-8798245","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":587705507,"identity":"d4247423-1a80-4f9c-9cd9-4cfbf6e6ccbc","order_by":0,"name":"Qi Quan","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA7klEQVRIiWNgGAWjYNCCCgYDPiSuARFazjAYsJGmhbGNFC18x3MMPxfOqzNmY29+wPCh5k5iA3vzNgmGmjs4tUieeWMsPXPbYTM2nmMGjDOOPUts4DlWJsFw7BlOLQY3cgykebcdsGGTyGFg5m04nNggkWMmwdhwGJ8W49+8c+ps2OTfMDD/BWmRf0NQi5k0bwOzGZsEDwMzI9gWHvxaJM88K7PmOXbYmI0nzeBgD5DRxpNWbJFwDLcWvuPJm2/z1NQZ9rMffvjgR81hWSBj440PNbi1MBxIQGKDCHAEJWBRiVXLKBgFo2AUjAKsAACvEFE0oA7UVAAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==","orcid":"","institution":"East China Normal University","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Qi","middleName":"","lastName":"Quan","suffix":""},{"id":587705508,"identity":"26dc2e24-5c6e-4dea-99b7-cfe97800c063","order_by":1,"name":"Xueyang Chen","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"East China Normal University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Xueyang","middleName":"","lastName":"Chen","suffix":""},{"id":587705509,"identity":"f4cba03d-f578-493d-8f6a-135427a26863","order_by":2,"name":"Lei Lin","email":"","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5870-4703","institution":"Shandong University of Science and Technology","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Lei","middleName":"","lastName":"Lin","suffix":""},{"id":587705510,"identity":"e9294173-3c0d-4656-9744-af1c7841ec7e","order_by":3,"name":"Yiyang Ji","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"East China Normal University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Yiyang","middleName":"","lastName":"Ji","suffix":""},{"id":587705511,"identity":"d2c7d2b1-864b-4ffe-a314-3514a7a1447a","order_by":4,"name":"Dongyan Liu","email":"","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3606-9846","institution":"East China Normal University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Dongyan","middleName":"","lastName":"Liu","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2026-02-05 14:30:29","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-8798245/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-8798245/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":102297995,"identity":"14cc7395-3299-4606-bafb-8abe46410266","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-02-10 10:30:02","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":855367,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"Manuscript.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-8798245/v1_covered_ca8e61bc-e6d8-4e01-802a-46ef3415d87c.pdf"},{"id":102287231,"identity":"0c2dd1bc-3577-41ef-901b-7339d59a832d","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-02-10 08:35:16","extension":"docx","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"supplement","size":9259734,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"Supporting Information for Heat Flux Intensified Coastal Thermal Fronts in the East China Shelf Seas","description":"","filename":"Supplementary.docx","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-8798245/v1/b413b91596ebe325735df350.docx"}],"financialInterests":"There is \u003cb\u003eNO\u003c/b\u003e Competing Interest.","formattedTitle":"Heat Flux Intensified Coastal Thermal Fronts in the East China Shelf Seas","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":true,"hideJournal":false,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"nature-portfolio","isNatureJournal":true,"hasQc":false,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"","title":"Nature Portfolio","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":false,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"ejp","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":false},"keywords":"","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-8798245/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-8798245/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eOceanic thermal fronts (OTFs) in Large Marine Ecosystems worldwide have generally intensified over the past decade; however, the regional manifestations of these changes and the underlying physical mechanisms remain unclear. Using high-resolution sea surface temperature data from 2003 to 2024 and a mixed-layer heat budget model, we quantified the annual trends of ten quasi-stationary OTFs in the East China shelf seas during winter and diagnosed their thermodynamic controls. Seven coastal fronts have strengthened due to increased air-sea heat loss, primarily driven by latent and sensible heat fluxes. In contrast, three shelf and shelf-break fronts remained stable, owing to compensating warm advection. These contrasting trends are closely linked to climate modes: the intensified East Asian winter monsoon reinforced the coastal fronts, while the westward migration of the Kuroshio axis suppressed surface cooling, maintaining the stability of the shelf and shelf-break fronts. Given the ecological and biogeochemical significance of OTFs, the intensified coastal fronts could further influence spatial patterns of matter exchange and primary production in the ocean.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"Heat Flux Intensified Coastal Thermal Fronts in the East China Shelf Seas","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2026-02-10 08:35:11","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-8798245/v1","editorialEvents":[],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"nature-communications","isNatureJournal":true,"hasQc":false,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"NCOMMS","sideBox":"Learn more about [Nature Communications](http://www.nature.com/ncomms/)","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"https://mts-ncomms.nature.com/","title":"Nature Communications","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":true,"editorialSystem":"ejp","reportingPortfolio":"Nature Communications","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":false}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"22ac22de-1aba-4fcd-bf01-a673ba26928e","owner":[],"postedDate":"February 10th, 2026","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"under-review","subjectAreas":[{"id":62527990,"name":"Earth and environmental sciences/Ocean sciences/Physical oceanography"},{"id":62527991,"name":"Earth and environmental sciences/Ocean sciences/Marine biology"}],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2026-02-25T11:07:01+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2026-02-10 08:35:11","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-8798245","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-8798245","identity":"rs-8798245","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"XKTyCvWXoU3ODBz1xrDgd","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}