Aquatic Sciences Meeting, Albuquerque 2001

PC14 Estuarine, Near-shore, and Continental Shelf Processes

Date: Thursday, February 15, 2001

Location: Southwest Hall

Justic, D, , Coastal Ecology Institute, Louisiana State Univ., Baton Rouge, USA, djusti1@lsu.edu

Rabalais, N, N, Louisiana Univ. Marine Consortium, Chauvin, USA, nrabalais@lumcon.edu

Turner, R, E, Coastal Ecology Institute, Louisiana State Univ., Baton Rouge, USA, euturne@lsu.edu

SHORT-TERM OXYGEN VARIABILITY IN THE CORE OF THE GULF OF MEXICO HYPOXIC ZONE

Continental shelf of the northern Gulf of Mexico is the site of the largest (up to 20,000 square kilometers) and the most severe coastal hypoxic zone in the western Atlantic Ocean. Hypoxia occurs from March through October in waters below the pycnocline and extends from 5 to 60 km offshore. Continuous oxygen, temperature and salinity records were collected at station C6, in the core of the hypoxic zone, from March 1996 onward. The measurements were carried out at several depths within the water column, using pulsed dissolved oxygen sensors. Results of time-series analysis suggest that there is a large variability in bottom oxygen concentrations over time scales of 15 minutes to several days. Characteristic signals range from random walks of unknown origin to rapid reoxygenation events caused by frontal passages and tropical disturbances.

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Aquatic Sciences Meeting, Albuquerque 2001

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