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Oxygen depletion off the Changjiang (Yangtze River) Estuary

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Abstract

In a survey on the Yellow Sea and the East China Sea on August 20-30 of 1999, we found a hypoxic zone (<2 mg/L) of 13700 km2 with an average thickness of 20m at the bottom of the Changjiang (Yangtze River) Estuary, with an oxygen minimum value of 1 mg/L. The extension of the dissolved oxygen deficiency extended to the 100m isobath in a southeastward direction along the bottom of the continental shelf of the East China Sea. During the last two decades, the minimum dissolved oxygen values in the low oxygen region of the Changjiang Estuary have decreased from 2.85 mg/L to 1 mg/L. In the hypoxic zone, the apparent oxygen utilization (AOU) was 5.8 mg/L and the total oxygen depletion approximately 1.59 × 106t. The strong halocline above the hypoxic zone, as a result of affluent water from the Changjiang, Taiwan Warm Current (TWC), and the high concentrations of particle organic carbon (POC) and nitrogen (PON) are the major factors causing the formation of the hypoxic zone. The POC: PON ratios and nutrient concentration distributions in the hypoxic zone suggest that the oxygen deficiency in the bottom water during the summer in the East China Sea off the Changjiang is the result of organic carbon production enhanced by nutrients from the Changjiang and fluvial organic matter input, followed by a shift in regeneration of nutrients in the East China Sea.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Estuarine and Coastal Research, East China Normal University, 200062, Shanghai, China

    Daoji Li, Jing Zhang, Ying Wu & Jun Liang

  2. Second Institute of Oceanography, State Oceanic Administration, 310012, Hangzhou, China

    Daji Huang

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  1. Daoji Li
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  2. Jing Zhang
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  3. Daji Huang
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  4. Ying Wu
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  5. Jun Liang
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Correspondence to Daoji Li.

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Li, D., Zhang, J., Huang, D. et al. Oxygen depletion off the Changjiang (Yangtze River) Estuary. Sci. China Ser. D-Earth Sci. 45, 1137–1146 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1360/02yd9110

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