期刊
MARINE CHEMISTRY
卷 179, 期 -, 页码 1-11出版社
ELSEVIER
DOI: 10.1016/j.marchem.2015.12.005
关键词
Groundwater; Hypoxia; Radium; Oxygen
资金
- Burroughs & Chapin Center for Marine and Wetland Studies at Coastal Carolina University
- Southeast Coastal Ocean Observing Regional Association
- Apache Pier Family Campground
- NSF [OCE-1231211, EAR-1316250]
- Horry County, South Carolina
- South Carolina Department of Natural Resources
- South Carolina Sea Grant Consortium
- South Carolina Department of Health & Environmental Control (Ocean & Coastal Resource Management)
- Directorate For Geosciences
- Division Of Earth Sciences [1316250] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
Processes leading to the development of coastal hypoxia are usually attributed to anthropogenic nutrient loading. We present new evidence documenting a natural process capable of producing large-scale water masses under saturated with respect to dissolved oxygen, independent of human-caused nutrient loading and subsequent nutrient-enhanced productivity. Along the heavily developed coastline of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, the offshore discharge of saline, anoxic groundwater generates undersaturated bottom water masses which can be advected into nearshore waters. Highly elevated radium isotope activities measured in low-oxygen bottom waters cannot be supported by any known terrestrial source. Rather, discharge of cold, anoxic, high-radium water from offshore carbonate aquifers is the likely source. Density stratification inhibits mixing of these discharged waters during inshore transport. During a low-oxygen event in August 2012, this restricted mixing is likely the mechanism for the observed oxygen deficit in bottom waters. This discovery suggests benthic layers undersaturated with respect to dissolved oxygen may be considerably more prevalent than currently recognized, particularly around the carbonate-platform of the US East Coast. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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