Presenter: Jenna Pearson (Princeton University)
Description:
Coastal hypoxia (i.e. harmfully low oxygen) is one of the most pressing threats to coastal marine ecosystems. The biodiverse and commercially valuable coastline of the northern Indian ocean is particularly vulnerable to hypoxia due to human activity, the vast naturally occurring oxygen minimum zones (OMZs) and the variability associated with the seasonal monsoons and interannual Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) that impact exchanges between the OMZs and shelf waters. Using coastal oxygen observations paired with sea-level anomalies and surface chlorophyll-a, we map the risk of coastal hypoxia on seasonal and interannual timescales in the northern Indian Ocean, and show that hypoxia is controlled by wind- and Kelvin/Rossby wave-driven upwelling of oxygen-poor waters onto the continental shelf as well as reinforcing biological feedbacks on both timescales. Major impacts on seasonal hypoxia are attributed to positive IOD phases along the coast of the eastern Bay of Bengal (i.e. Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia, Sumatra), where the risk of hypoxia increases from moderate to high in summer/fall (21% to 42%) and winter/spring (31% to 46%), and along the coast of the eastern Arabian Sea (i.e. India, Pakistan) where the summer/fall risk of hypoxia drops from high (53%) to moderate (34%). Strong effects are also seen in the eastern Bay of Bengal during negative IOD phases, when the risk of hypoxia reduces from moderate to low in summer/fall (21% to 2%) and winter/spring (31% to 5%). This basin-scale mapping of hypoxic risk will aid national and international efforts to monitor, forecast, and mitigate the impacts of hypoxia on coastal ecosystems and ecosystem services.
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Full list of Authors
- Jenna Pearson (Princeton University)
- Laure Resplandy (Princeton University)
- Mathieu Poupon (Princeton University)
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Coastlines at Risk of Hypoxia in the Northern Indian Ocean
Category
Scientific Session > PL - Physical Oceanography: Mesoscale and Larger > PL04 Indian Ocean circulation and its impact on air-sea interactions, biogeochemistry and ecology
Description
Presentation Preference: Poster
Supporting Program: None
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