title: Physical controls of hypoxia in waters adjacent to the Yangtze Estuary: A numerical modeling study.
abstract: A three-dimensional circulation model (the Environmental Fluid Dynamic Code) was used to examine the role that physical forcing (river discharge, wind speed and direction) plays in controlling hypoxia in waters adjacent to the Yangtze Estuary. The model assumes that the biological consumption of oxygen is constant in both time and space, which allows the role of physical forcing in modulating the oxygen dynamics to be isolated. Despite of the simplicity of this model, the simulation results showed that it can reproduce the observed variability of dissolved oxygen in waters adjacent to the Yangtze Estuary, thereby highlighting the important role of changes in physical forcing in the variation of hypoxia. The scenarios tested revealed appreciable changes in the areal extent of hypoxia as a function of wind speed and wind direction. Interestingly, well-developed hypoxia was insensitive to river discharge.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Water Environment Simulation, School of Environment, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, PR China.
authors.forename: Xiaofeng
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Water Environment Simulation, School of Environment, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, PR China. Electronic address: zyshen@bnu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Zhenyao
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Shen
authors.affiliation: Chinese Academy for Environmental Planning, #8 Dayangfang, Beiyuan Rd., Chaoyang District, Beijing 100012, PR China.
authors.forename: Yangyang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Water Environment Simulation, School of Environment, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, PR China.
authors.forename: Ye
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yang
mesh_terms: D002681:China; D063366:Estuaries; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D010100:Oxygen / Q000032:analysis*; D045483:Rivers / Q000737:chemistry; D014867:Water / Q000737:chemistry*; D014919:Wind
chemical_list: D014867:Water; D010100:Oxygen
keywords: Discharge; Hypoxia; Simulation; Wind direction; Wind speed; Yangtze Estuary