Benthic biological effects of seasonal hypoxia in a eutrophic estuary predate rapid coastal development

Bishop, M; powers, S; Porter, H; Peterson, CH

Benthic biological effects of seasonal hypoxia in a eutrophic estuary predate rapid coastal development

Bishop, M powers, S Porter, H Peterson, CH

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Publisher:: Elsevier
Publication Type:: Journal Article
Citation:: Estuarine Coastal and Shelf Science, 2006, 70 (3), pp. 415 - 422
Issue Date:: 2006-01

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Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Bishop, M	en_US
dc.contributor.author	powers, S	en_US
dc.contributor.author	Porter, H	en_US
dc.contributor.author	Peterson, CH	en_US
dc.date.issued	2006-01	en_US
dc.identifier.citation	Estuarine Coastal and Shelf Science, 2006, 70 (3), pp. 415 - 422	en_US
dc.identifier.issn	0272-7714	en_US
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/693
dc.description.abstract	Nutrient and organic loading associated with escalating human activities increases biological oxygen demand from microbial decomposition. In the Neuse River estuary, North Carolina, recurrent nuisance algal blooms, bottom-water hypoxic events, and fish kills during summers of the 1990s suggest that uncapped nutrient loading may have increased the frequency, duration, and/or spatial scope of important biological effects of hypoxia during summer, when persistent water column stratification can occur and microbial metabolism is greatest. We test the hypothesis that the severity of benthic biological effects of hypoxia in this estuary has increased over a 30-year period of dramatic human population growth in eastern North Carolina by comparing survival over summer of the benthic bivalve Macoma spp. between historical (19681970) and recent (19971998) years. Macoma is a demonstrated indicator of oxygen availability, the benthic biomass dominant in the Neuse and other temperate estuaries and the major prey link to higher trophic levels. All three historical summers exhibited patterns of collapse in Macoma populations indistinguishable from the recent summer of severe hypoxia (1997) but distinct from the modest changes documented during the mildly hypoxic summer of 1998. The only Macoma to survive any severely hypoxic summer were those in shallows where oxygen could be renewed by surface mixing. Thus, the biological effects of hypoxia observed in the Neuse River estuary in the late 1990s appear no more severe than 30 years before. Historic rates of organic loading to the Neuse River estuary may have been sufficient to induce widespread and intense hypoxia beneath the surface mixed layer, implying that even if algal blooms are diminished through nutrient reductions, the severity of biological effects of bottom-water hypoxia may not change detectably.	en_US
dc.publisher	Elsevier	en_US
dc.relation.ispartof	Estuarine Coastal and Shelf Science	en_US
dc.relation.isbasedon	10.1016/j.ecss.2006.06.031	en_US
dc.subject.classification	Marine Biology & Hydrobiology	en_US
dc.title	Benthic biological effects of seasonal hypoxia in a eutrophic estuary predate rapid coastal development	en_US
dc.type	Journal Article
utslib.citation.volume	3	en_US
utslib.citation.volume	70	en_US
utslib.for	0405 Oceanography	en_US
pubs.embargo.period	Not known	en_US
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Science
utslib.copyright.status	closed_access
pubs.consider-herdc	true	en_US
pubs.issue	3	en_US
pubs.volume	70	en_US

Abstract:

Nutrient and organic loading associated with escalating human activities increases biological oxygen demand from microbial decomposition. In the Neuse River estuary, North Carolina, recurrent nuisance algal blooms, bottom-water hypoxic events, and fish kills during summers of the 1990s suggest that uncapped nutrient loading may have increased the frequency, duration, and/or spatial scope of important biological effects of hypoxia during summer, when persistent water column stratification can occur and microbial metabolism is greatest. We test the hypothesis that the severity of benthic biological effects of hypoxia in this estuary has increased over a 30-year period of dramatic human population growth in eastern North Carolina by comparing survival over summer of the benthic bivalve Macoma spp. between historical (19681970) and recent (19971998) years. Macoma is a demonstrated indicator of oxygen availability, the benthic biomass dominant in the Neuse and other temperate estuaries and the major prey link to higher trophic levels. All three historical summers exhibited patterns of collapse in Macoma populations indistinguishable from the recent summer of severe hypoxia (1997) but distinct from the modest changes documented during the mildly hypoxic summer of 1998. The only Macoma to survive any severely hypoxic summer were those in shallows where oxygen could be renewed by surface mixing. Thus, the biological effects of hypoxia observed in the Neuse River estuary in the late 1990s appear no more severe than 30 years before. Historic rates of organic loading to the Neuse River estuary may have been sufficient to induce widespread and intense hypoxia beneath the surface mixed layer, implying that even if algal blooms are diminished through nutrient reductions, the severity of biological effects of bottom-water hypoxia may not change detectably.

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http://hdl.handle.net/10453/693