Journal
ANNUAL REVIEW OF MARINE SCIENCE, VOL 11
Volume 11, Issue -, Pages 105-130Publisher
ANNUAL REVIEWS
DOI: 10.1146/annurev-marine-010318-095138
Keywords
hypoxia; residence time; estuary; river-dominated shelf; upwelling shelf; anthropogenic nutrient load
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Aquatic environments experiencing low-oxygen conditions have been described as hypoxic, suboxic, or anoxic zones; oxygen minimum zones; and, in the popular media, the misnomer dead zones. This review aims to elucidate important aspects underlying oxygen depletion in diverse coastal systems and provides a synthesis of general relationships between hypoxia and its controlling factors. After presenting a generic overview of the first-order processes, we review system-specific characteristics for selected estuaries where adjacent human settlements contribute to high nutrient loads, river-dominated shelves that receive large inputs of fresh water and anthropogenic nutrients, and upwelling regions where a supply of nutrient-rich, low-oxygen waters generates oxygen minimum zones without direct anthropogenic influence. We propose a nondimensional number that relates the hypoxia timescale and water residence time to guide the cross-system comparison. Our analysis reveals the basic principles underlying hypoxia generation in coastal systems and provides a framework for discussing future changes.
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