Abstract
Dissolved oxygen is an ecologically critical variable with the prevalence of hypoxia one of the key global anthropogenic issues. A study was carried out to understand the causes of low dissolved oxygen in Brunei Bay, northwest Borneo. Hypoxia was widespread in bottom waters in the monsoonal dry season with dissolved oxygen < 2 mg/L throughout the coastal zone. This was a result of riverine nutrient input primarily from the Padas river driving excess primary production and its subsequent sinking into stratified bottom water where its decomposition consumed oxygen. Despite higher riverine nutrient input in the wet season hypoxia was less extensive due to the combination of turbidity reducing coastal primary production, the intrusion of oxygen-rich water from the South China Sea into offshore bottom layer waters and horizontal flushing increase advection of phytoplankton biomass out of the bay. Future investigation of hypoxia in shallow tropical regions therefore needs to consider the role of monsoonal season.
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Acknowledgements
The technical support provided by INOS staff during the fieldwork is highly appreciated.
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This work was supported by the Higher Institution Centre of Excellence (HICoE), Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia [grant number 66928].
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Yet Yin Hee: conceptualization; methodology; validation; formal analysis; investigation; data curation; writing—original draft; visualization and project administration. Keith Weston: writing—review and editing and supervision. Suhaimi Suratman: conceptualization; methodology; resources; supervision; project administration and funding acquisition. Mohd Fadzil Akhir: writing—review and editing and supervision; Mohd Talib Latif: writing—review and editing and supervision; Sudheesh Valliyodan: writing—review and editing.
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Highlights
• Widespread coastal bottom water hypoxia occurred in the monsoonal dry season
• Higher river flow increased riverine nutrient inputs in the wet monsoonal season
• Decomposition of primary production from excess riverine nutrients caused hypoxia
• Turbid coastal waters and oxygen-rich shelf water input limited wet season hypoxia
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Hee, Y.Y., Weston, K., Suratman, S. et al. Biogeochemical and physical drivers of hypoxia in a tropical embayment (Brunei Bay). Environ Sci Pollut Res 30, 65351–65363 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-26948-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-26948-9