Fig.1 Maps and hydrographical properties of studied
areas in the epipelagic waters of China marginal seas in spring. Maps
of sampling sites (a); hydrographical properties of temperature and
salinity (b) of different water masses that were identified based on the
Supplementary Methods and were displayed in different colors in the left
map (a); environmental variations of samples from different water masses
displayed by principal component analysis (PCA) (c). The abbreviations
of the water masses are: Mc , Minzhe coastal water; Cm ,
Coastal mixed water; Es , East China Sea surface water;Ks , Kuroshio surface water; Ss , South China Sea
surface water. According to the salinity and the distance from the shore
of the water masses, the Mc were considered as coastal waters, the Cm,
Es, and Ss were considered as mixed waters, while the Ks were assorted
to oceanic waters. The abbreviations of the environmental variables are:
Temp, temperature; Sal, salinity; Fluo, fluorescence;
SiO3-Si, Silicate; PO4-P, dissolved
inorganic phosphorus; NO2-N, nitrite; Chl a ,
chlorophyll a ; Cyan, cyanobacteria;
pico-Euk, pico-sized eukaryotic
algae; PNF, pigmented nanoflagellate.