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Influence of elevated river flow on hypoxia occurrence, nutrient concentration and microbial dynamics in a tropical estuary

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Abstract

We sampled the Klang estuary during the inter-monsoon and northeast monsoon period (July–Nov 2011, Oct–Nov 2012), which coincided with higher rainfall and elevated Klang River flow. The increased freshwater inflow into the estuary resulted in water column stratification that was observed during both sampling periods. Dissolved oxygen (DO) dropped below 63 μM, and hypoxia was observed. Elevated river flow also transported dissolved inorganic nutrients, chlorophyll a and bacteria to the estuary. However, bacterial production did not correlate with DO concentration in this study. As hypoxia was probably not due to in situ heterotrophic processes, deoxygenated waters were probably from upstream. We surmised this as DO correlated with salinity (R2 = 0.664, df = 86, p < 0.001). DO also decreased with increasing flushing time (R2 = 0.556, df = 11, p < 0.01), suggesting that when flushing time (> 6.7 h), hypoxia could occur at the Klang estuary. Here, we presented a model that related riverine flow rate to the post-heavy rainfall hypoxia that explicated the episodic hypoxia at Klang estuary. As Klang estuary supports aquaculture and cockle culture, our results could help protect the aquaculture and cockle culture industry here.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the Malaysia Meteorological Department for providing the rainfall data and the Department of Irrigation and Drainage Malaysia for the Klang River flow rates.

Funding

We are grateful to the Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia for the FRGS grant (FP061-2018A or FRGS/1/2018/WAB09/UM/02/1) and HiCoE grant (IOES-2014D).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Microbial Ecology, Institute of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of Malaya, 50603, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

    Choon Weng Lee, Joon Hai Lim, Pei Li Heng, Nurul Fitrah Marican & Chui Wei Bong

  2. Institute of Ocean and Earth Sciences, University of Malaya, 50603, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

    Choon Weng Lee, Joon Hai Lim & Chui Wei Bong

  3. Institute for Advanced Studies, University of Malaya, 50603, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

    Joon Hai Lim

  4. School of Science, Monash University Malaysia, Bandar Sunway, 47500, Subang Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia

    Kumaran Narayanan

  5. Faculty of Resource Sciences and Technology, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, 94300, Kota Samarahan, Sarawak, Malaysia

    Edmund Ui Hang Sim

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  1. Choon Weng Lee
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Lee, C.W., Lim, J.H., Heng, P.L. et al. Influence of elevated river flow on hypoxia occurrence, nutrient concentration and microbial dynamics in a tropical estuary. Environ Monit Assess 192, 660 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-020-08625-3

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