Trends and drivers of hypoxic thickness and volume in the northern Gulf of Mexico: 1985-2018.
Hypoxia is a major environmental issue plaguing the commercially and ecologically important coastal waters of the northern Gulf of Mexico. Several modeling studies have explored this phenomenon, but primarily focus on the areal extent of the mid-summer hypoxic zone. Research into the variability and...
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Public Library of Science (PLoS)
2024-01-01
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| Series: | PLoS ONE |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0302759 |
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| author | Venkata Rohith Reddy Matli Daniel Obenour |
| author_facet | Venkata Rohith Reddy Matli Daniel Obenour |
| author_sort | Venkata Rohith Reddy Matli |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Hypoxia is a major environmental issue plaguing the commercially and ecologically important coastal waters of the northern Gulf of Mexico. Several modeling studies have explored this phenomenon, but primarily focus on the areal extent of the mid-summer hypoxic zone. Research into the variability and drivers of hypoxic volume and thickness is also important in evaluating the seasonal progression of hypoxia and its impact on coastal resources. In this study, we compile data from multiple monitoring programs and develop a geospatial model capable of estimating hypoxic thickness and volume across the summer season. We adopt a space-time geostatistical framework and introduce a rank-based inverse normal transformation to simulate more realistic distributions of hypoxic layer thickness. Our findings indicate that, on average, there is a seasonal lag in peak hypoxic volume and thickness compared to hypoxic area. We assess long-term trends in different hypoxia metrics (area, thickness, and volume), and while most metrics did not exhibit significant trends, mid-summer hypoxic thickness is found to have increased at a rate of 5.9 cm/year (p<0.05) over the past three decades. In addition, spring nitrogen load is found to be the major driver of all hypoxia metrics, when considered along with other riverine inputs and meteorological factors in multiple regression models. Hypoxic volume, which was also often influenced by east-west wind velocities, was found to be more predictable than hypoxic thickness. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-68e8f03f740a454ea767e6f17d2c4df6 |
| institution | OA Journals |
| issn | 1932-6203 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2024-01-01 |
| publisher | Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
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| series | PLoS ONE |
| spelling | doaj-art-68e8f03f740a454ea767e6f17d2c4df62025-08-20T01:59:21ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032024-01-011912e030275910.1371/journal.pone.0302759Trends and drivers of hypoxic thickness and volume in the northern Gulf of Mexico: 1985-2018.Venkata Rohith Reddy MatliDaniel ObenourHypoxia is a major environmental issue plaguing the commercially and ecologically important coastal waters of the northern Gulf of Mexico. Several modeling studies have explored this phenomenon, but primarily focus on the areal extent of the mid-summer hypoxic zone. Research into the variability and drivers of hypoxic volume and thickness is also important in evaluating the seasonal progression of hypoxia and its impact on coastal resources. In this study, we compile data from multiple monitoring programs and develop a geospatial model capable of estimating hypoxic thickness and volume across the summer season. We adopt a space-time geostatistical framework and introduce a rank-based inverse normal transformation to simulate more realistic distributions of hypoxic layer thickness. Our findings indicate that, on average, there is a seasonal lag in peak hypoxic volume and thickness compared to hypoxic area. We assess long-term trends in different hypoxia metrics (area, thickness, and volume), and while most metrics did not exhibit significant trends, mid-summer hypoxic thickness is found to have increased at a rate of 5.9 cm/year (p<0.05) over the past three decades. In addition, spring nitrogen load is found to be the major driver of all hypoxia metrics, when considered along with other riverine inputs and meteorological factors in multiple regression models. Hypoxic volume, which was also often influenced by east-west wind velocities, was found to be more predictable than hypoxic thickness.https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0302759 |
| spellingShingle | Venkata Rohith Reddy Matli Daniel Obenour Trends and drivers of hypoxic thickness and volume in the northern Gulf of Mexico: 1985-2018. PLoS ONE |
| title | Trends and drivers of hypoxic thickness and volume in the northern Gulf of Mexico: 1985-2018. |
| title_full | Trends and drivers of hypoxic thickness and volume in the northern Gulf of Mexico: 1985-2018. |
| title_fullStr | Trends and drivers of hypoxic thickness and volume in the northern Gulf of Mexico: 1985-2018. |
| title_full_unstemmed | Trends and drivers of hypoxic thickness and volume in the northern Gulf of Mexico: 1985-2018. |
| title_short | Trends and drivers of hypoxic thickness and volume in the northern Gulf of Mexico: 1985-2018. |
| title_sort | trends and drivers of hypoxic thickness and volume in the northern gulf of mexico 1985 2018 |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0302759 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT venkatarohithreddymatli trendsanddriversofhypoxicthicknessandvolumeinthenortherngulfofmexico19852018 AT danielobenour trendsanddriversofhypoxicthicknessandvolumeinthenortherngulfofmexico19852018 |