Estimating Hypoxic Volume in the Chesapeake Bay Using Two Continuously Sampled Oxygen Profiles

• Published in: Journal of geophysical research. Oceans 2018-09, Vol.123 (9), p.6392-6407
• Main Authors: Bever, Aaron J., Friedrichs, Marjorie A. M., Friedrichs, Carl T., Scully, Malcolm E.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Bathymeters; Bathymetry; Bays; Biota; Boats; Bottom water; Chesapeake Bay; Computer models; Cruises; Data; dead zone; Dissolved oxygen; estuary; Fish; Fisheries; Geophysics; Hypoxia; Instrumentation; Locations (working); Mathematical models; Methods; Moisture content; Monitoring; Numerical models; observing systems; Oxygen; Oxygen profiles; Profiles; Shellfish; Storms; Vertical orientation; Vertical profiles; Water content; Wind direction
• ISSN: 2169-9275; 2169-9291
• DOI: 10.1029/2018JC014129

Low levels of dissolved oxygen (DO) occur in many embayments throughout the world and have numerous detrimental effects on biota. Although measurement of in situ DO is straightforward with modern instrumentation, quantifying the volume of water in a given embayment that is hypoxic (hypoxic volume (HV)) is a more difficult task; however, this information is critical for determining whether management efforts to increase DO are having an overall impact. This paper uses output from a three‐dimensional numerical model to demonstrate that HV in Chesapeake Bay can be estimated well with as few as two vertical profiles. In addition, the cumulative hypoxic volume (HVC; the total amount of hypoxia in a given year) can be calculated with relatively low uncertainty (