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Relative Importance of Nutrient Load and Wind on Regulating Interannual Summer Hypoxia in the Chesapeake Bay

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An Erratum to this article was published on 05 September 2014

Abstract

To analyze the correlations of summer anoxia/hypoxia in the Chesapeake Bay with watershed input and wind conditions, statistics were applied to nearly three decades of monitoring data. The results of Pearson correlation coefficients, multivariate regression analysis, and cluster analysis indicate that anoxia/hypoxia has a strong positive correlation with nutrient load and a moderate negative correlation with wind speed. Physical relationships among the relevant constituents were analyzed. Nutrient loads and the subsequent decay of organic matter are the primary factors that control the oxygen demand causing summer anoxia and hypoxia, while episodic wind can partially erode stratification and reduce anoxia/hypoxia. Although the extent of anoxia/hypoxia reduction differs with wind direction, higher wind speeds result in more destratification and anoxia/hypoxia reduction than lower wind speeds and are more important than the effect of wind direction. The influences of freshwater discharge, stratification, and temperature were also analyzed. Computer modeling results were used to obtain dissolved oxygen conditions at finer temporal and spatial scales to supplement the scattered and discrete observations from monitoring stations and for better understanding of anoxia/hypoxia development under episodic wind events.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Drs. Dave Forrest from VIMS and Peter Tango of USGS, and two anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments and input.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Virginia Institute of Marine Science, PO Box 1346, Gloucester, VA, 23062, USA

    Ping Wang & Harry Wang

  2. USEPA Chesapeake Bay Program Office, 410 Severn Avenue, Annapolis, MD, 21403, USA

    Lewis Linker

Authors
  1. Ping Wang
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  2. Harry Wang
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  3. Lewis Linker
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ping Wang.

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Communicated by Dennis Swaney

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Wang, P., Wang, H. & Linker, L. Relative Importance of Nutrient Load and Wind on Regulating Interannual Summer Hypoxia in the Chesapeake Bay. Estuaries and Coasts 38, 1048–1061 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12237-014-9867-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12237-014-9867-5

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