Climate-forced variability of ocean hypoxia
- PMID: 21659566
- DOI: 10.1126/science.1202422
Climate-forced variability of ocean hypoxia
Abstract
Oxygen (O(2)) is a critical constraint on marine ecosystems. As oceanic O(2) falls to hypoxic concentrations, habitability for aerobic organisms decreases rapidly. We show that the spatial extent of hypoxia is highly sensitive to small changes in the ocean's O(2) content, with maximum responses at suboxic concentrations where anaerobic metabolisms predominate. In model-based reconstructions of historical oxygen changes, the world's largest suboxic zone, in the Pacific Ocean, varies in size by a factor of 2. This is attributable to climate-driven changes in the depth of the tropical and subtropical thermocline that have multiplicative effects on respiration rates in low-O(2) water. The same mechanism yields even larger fluctuations in the rate of nitrogen removal by denitrification, creating a link between decadal climate oscillations and the nutrient limitation of marine photosynthesis.
Similar articles
-
Spatial coupling of nitrogen inputs and losses in the ocean.Nature. 2007 Jan 11;445(7124):163-7. doi: 10.1038/nature05392. Nature. 2007. PMID: 17215838
-
Upwelling-driven nearshore hypoxia signals ecosystem and oceanographic changes in the northeast Pacific.Nature. 2004 Jun 17;429(6993):749-54. doi: 10.1038/nature02605. Nature. 2004. PMID: 15201908
-
High-latitude controls of thermocline nutrients and low latitude biological productivity.Nature. 2004 Jan 1;427(6969):56-60. doi: 10.1038/nature02127. Nature. 2004. PMID: 14702082
-
The impact of climate change on the world's marine ecosystems.Science. 2010 Jun 18;328(5985):1523-8. doi: 10.1126/science.1189930. Science. 2010. PMID: 20558709 Review.
-
Temporal change in deep-sea benthic ecosystems: a review of the evidence from recent time-series studies.Adv Mar Biol. 2010;58:1-95. doi: 10.1016/B978-0-12-381015-1.00001-0. Adv Mar Biol. 2010. PMID: 20959156 Review.
Cited by
-
Urban point sources of nutrients were the leading cause for the historical spread of hypoxia across European lakes.Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2016 Nov 8;113(45):12655-12660. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1605480113. Epub 2016 Oct 24. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2016. PMID: 27791076 Free PMC article.
-
How low can they go? Aerobic respiration by microorganisms under apparent anoxia.FEMS Microbiol Rev. 2022 May 6;46(3):fuac006. doi: 10.1093/femsre/fuac006. FEMS Microbiol Rev. 2022. PMID: 35094062 Free PMC article.
-
North Atlantic temperature control on deoxygenation in the northern tropical Pacific.Nat Commun. 2024 Sep 10;15(1):7919. doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-52197-6. Nat Commun. 2024. PMID: 39256390 Free PMC article.
-
Links between fish abundance and ocean biogeochemistry as recorded in marine sediments.PLoS One. 2018 Aug 1;13(8):e0199420. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0199420. eCollection 2018. PLoS One. 2018. PMID: 30067749 Free PMC article.
-
Decline in global oceanic oxygen content during the past five decades.Nature. 2017 Feb 15;542(7641):335-339. doi: 10.1038/nature21399. Nature. 2017. PMID: 28202958
Publication types
MeSH terms
Substances
LinkOut - more resources
Full Text Sources
Medical
Research Materials
