Research Advances on Green Tides in the Yellow Sea

From 2007to 2012,large-scale drifting green tides have consecutively occurred in the Yellow Sea of China.This paper reviews the updated information on the source of the drifted algal biomass,the reason of formation of the algal biomass as well as the biological identification of the dominating species.The essential factors that govern the occurrence of green tides,namely bloom-forming alga,eutrophication of the sea water and environmental factors were analyzed.According to those results,a hypothetic process was proposed to deduce the annual process of formation and development of the green tides.The most updated results of source-tracking of the bloom-forming alga indicated that the coastal area eutrophication of Jiangsu Province might be closely related to the bloom and microscopic propagules of Ulva prolifera(spore,gamete and microscopic individual in different developmental stage)on the sandy shoals play an important role in the bloom of green tide.