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A tale of two spring blooms in a northeast estuary of the USA: how storms impact nutrients, multiple trophic levels and hypoxia

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Abstract

We explore how anomalously strong winter storms, superposed with managed nitrogen reduction, impacted the 2010 and 2018 spring blooms in the Narragansett Bay (41.62° N, 71.35° W). Anomalously strong winter storms preceding spring of 2010 and 2018 increased annual nutrient inputs above the long-term average annual values for the year, causing a large phytoplankton bloom in spring 2010 and a massive winter-spring bloom in 2018. Flooding from the stronger storm in 2010 caused a smaller increase in primary productivity than the smaller storms prior to spring 2018, probably due to increased flushing rates during the 2010 storm. Neither storm enhanced hypoxia the following summer. During both summers, hypoxia was typical of minimal-hypoxia years, indicating that managed nitrogen reduction which is strongest during summer, remained adequate even in the aftermath of organic inputs from large storms during the colder months. Additionally, some commercially fished species appeared to increase after the storm events. Storm nutrient impacts on commercial species suggest that increasing nitrogen inputs from treatment facilities in colder months might enhance Bay fisheries for squid and hard clam without diminishing summer water quality.

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Availability of data and material

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Code availability

EXCEL software was used for data presentation.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management, Office of Water Award AWD03084 (2010-2020) and by the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration Coastal Hypoxia Research Program grants NA05NOS4781201 and NA11NOS4780043. We thank Tom Uva and colleagues from the Narragansett Bay Commission for comments on the manuscript. We thank three unknown reviewers for comments to improve the manuscript.

Funding

This work was supported by Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management, Office of Water Award AWD03084 (2010–2020) and by the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration Coastal Hypoxia Research Program grants NA05NOS4781201 and NA11NOS4780043.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate School of Oceanography, University of Rhode Island, Narragansett, RI, 02882, USA

    Candace Oviatt, Heather Stoffel, Kristin Huizenga, Laura Reed & Daniel Codiga

  2. Carter & Sloope, Athens, GA, USA

    Lindsey Fields

Authors
  1. Candace Oviatt
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  2. Heather Stoffel
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  3. Kristin Huizenga
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  4. Laura Reed
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  5. Daniel Codiga
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  6. Lindsey Fields
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Contributions

CO posed the idea for the manuscript, plotted the data and drafted the paper; HS made data available from the Narragansett Bay fixed site and monitoring network for water quality; KH performed statistical analyses for the paper; LR provided dissolved inorganic and total nutrient concentrations data for the manuscript; DC provided calculations of time series of nitrogen inputs to Narragansett Bay; LF provided her PhD dissertation results on benthic flux data for the paper. KH and DC provided extensive editorial suggestions.

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Correspondence to Candace Oviatt.

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Oviatt, C., Stoffel, H., Huizenga, K. et al. A tale of two spring blooms in a northeast estuary of the USA: how storms impact nutrients, multiple trophic levels and hypoxia. Hydrobiologia 849, 1131–1148 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-021-04768-7

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