Impact of Climate Extremes on Suitability Dynamics for Japanese Scallop Aquaculture in Shandong, China and Funka Bay, Japan

The assessment of extreme weather events on suitable sites for aquaculture could help in establishing sustainable coastal environmental resource management. Japanese scallop culture is an economically important marine farming activity in the coastal communities of Shandong, China and Funka Bay, Japan. In this study, we improved the suitable aquaculture site-selection model (SASSM) by using Geostationary Ocean Color Imager (GOCI) data instead of Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data, as a complementary source for higher temporal and spatial resolution data that are useful for monitoring fine-scale coastal and oceanic processes. We also applied the newly developed SASSM to the Japanese scallop production site along the Shandong coast. Finally, we analyzed the correlations between environmental factors (chlorophyll a concentration, sea surface temperature (SST), and total suspended sediment), meteorological factors (precipitation, temperature, and wind), and climatic events (winter East Asian monsoon (EAM) and El Niño/La Niña Southern Oscillation), and the impacts of climate events on suitable zones for scallop aquaculture. The new SASSM maps show that GOCI products have the potential for oceanographic investigations in Shandong, China and Funka Bay, Japan. Our results highlighted higher aquaculture site suitability for scallop in Funka Bay than in Shandong coast. During the winter with a strong EAM (2011), the suitable area for Japanese scallop aquaculture increased. Conversely, in the winter during a strong El Niño (2016), we found fewer areas that were highly suitable for scallop aquaculture in Funka Bay. SST was extremely low in Funka Bay during spring and summer 2017, which caused fewer highly suitable areas (scores of 7 and 8) for scallop aquaculture relative to other years. These findings suggest that extreme climatic events significantly impact the availability of suitable sites for marine farming and thus, should be considered in the development and design of coastal aquaculture sites.