Abstract
Environmental history recorded in estuarine sediment describes water quality regimes through the use of geochemical and biological proxies. We collected sediment cores from two locations in the Coos Estuary, Oregon, at South Slough and Haynes Inlet, spanning from ~ 1680 AD to the present. To reconstruct the historical water column oxygen in the estuary, we measured geochemical proxies including organic matter, magnetic susceptibility, and elemental composition, and we constructed sediment chronologies using the Pb210 profile and radiocarbon dates. Correlation of geochemical proxies and a detailed 15-year record of dissolved oxygen observations supports the inference of dissolved oxygen (DO) history from these sediment cores: a novel finding for small, seasonal Pacific Northwest estuaries. Geochemical evidence suggests that over the last 300 years, annually or semi-annually averaged dissolved oxygen stress has been increasing at South Slough, while remaining stable or even decreasing at Haynes inlet. This history was explained by changing climatic and land-use effects on erosion and organic matter as well as the role of shipping channel maintenance in providing a dissolved oxygen reservoir at Haynes Inlet relative to the more isolated South Slough.
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Acknowledgements
We recognize the value of comments from Drs. Emily Eidam, Patricia McDowell, and Erin Herring. As well, thanks to Ted Conroy for providing access to compiled bathymetric data of the Coos Estuary. Many additional thanks to Drs. Federico Cernucci, John Dilles, Anders Carlson, and Marco Esters for technical assistance. We also thank the editor and two anonymous reviewers for their effort in improving the final manuscript.
Funding
This project was partially supported by Oregon Sea Grant under grant number NA14OAR4170064 from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Sea Grant College Program, US Department of Commerce, and by appropriations made by the Oregon State Legislature. This work was also partially sponsored by the National Estuarine Research Reserve System Science Collaborative, which supports collaborative research that addresses coastal management problems important to the reserves. The Science Collaborative is funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and managed by the University of Michigan Water Center (NAI4NOS4190145). The statements, findings, conclusions, and recommendations are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of these funders.
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Johnson, G.M., Sutherland, D.A., Roering, J.J. et al. Estuarine Dissolved Oxygen History Inferred from Sedimentary Trace Metal and Organic Matter Preservation. Estuaries and Coasts 42, 1211–1225 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12237-019-00580-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12237-019-00580-8