Water column oxygen dynamics within the coastal gradient in the northeastern Gulf of Mexico inner shelf

Santema, Michael; Clarke, Allan J.; Speer, Kevin; Huettel, Markus

doi:10.1016/j.csr.2015.05.006

Cited by 3 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…The occurrence and spatial extent of hypoxia varies with river discharge and is also affected by thermal stratification of the water column and mixing by currents and storms. Consequently, benthic habitats closer to the Mississippi River have substantially lower dissolved oxygen concentrations than areas of coastal Florida that are adjacent to much smaller watersheds (Rabalais et al 2007;Santema et al 2015). Studies of sedimentary cores indicate that hypoxic conditions occurred in coastal Louisiana before the twentieth century but have increased in frequency and extent toward the present-day (Osterman et al 2011).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental correlates of molluscan predator–prey body size in the northern Gulf of Mexico

Calderaro,

Harnik,

Rillo

2023

Paleobiology

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Non-technical Summary The Mississippi River delivers tremendous amounts of freshwater and nutrients to the northern Gulf of Mexico, which results in the explosive growth of phytoplankton populations that are typically nutrient limited. Decomposition of phytoplankton blooms by aerobic bacteria can deplete oxygen concentrations in coastal systems, leading to the establishment of oxygen-limited “dead zones.” Changes in the availability of food and dissolved oxygen, as well as changes in temperature, can have wide-reaching effects on coastal food webs. Here, we investigate how primary productivity, dissolved oxygen, and sea-surface temperature affect the sizes of molluscan predators and prey in the northern Gulf of Mexico using collections of shells preserved in seafloor sediment on the continental shelf. We find that the size of bivalves, and the frequency of predatory drilling by snails, are most affected by dissolved oxygen: prey size increases and drilling predation decreases with decreasing concentrations of dissolved oxygen. Sea-surface temperature is positively associated with the size of both molluscan predators and prey. In contrast, net primary productivity has little direct association with size, and the predator-to-prey size ratio also does not vary consistently with environmental conditions in the northern gulf. Larger bivalves in areas with lower oxygen could reflect reduced pressure from predators and, consequently, greater life spans. Larger predator and prey sizes in warmer waters may reflect more optimal conditions for growth. The shells of recently deceased bivalves, and the associated traces of drilling snails on those shells, can be used to investigate long-standing hypotheses about the roles of environmental variation in body-size evolution through geologic time. Furthermore, future studies comparing these historical data with data from present-day communities may help us understand how coastal food webs are changing in response to various human activities.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental correlates of molluscan predator–prey body size in the northern Gulf of Mexico

Calderaro,

Harnik,

Rillo

2023

Paleobiology

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Benthic Oxygen Fluxes Measured by Eddy Covariance in Permeable Gulf of Mexico Shallow-Water Sands

2016

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Dynamics of microphytobenthos photosynthetic activity along a depth transect in the sandy northeastern Gulf of Mexico shelf

Santema

Huettel

2018

Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science

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Water column oxygen dynamics within the coastal gradient in the northeastern Gulf of Mexico inner shelf

Abstract: openAccessArticle: Falsecover date: 2015-08-01pii: S0278-4343(15)00137-5Harvest Date: 2016-01-06 13:08:20issueName:Page Range: 104-104href scidir: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0278434315001375pubType: Research paper

Cited by 3 publications

References 70 publications

Environmental correlates of molluscan predator–prey body size in the northern Gulf of Mexico

Environmental correlates of molluscan predator–prey body size in the northern Gulf of Mexico

Benthic Oxygen Fluxes Measured by Eddy Covariance in Permeable Gulf of Mexico Shallow-Water Sands

Dynamics of microphytobenthos photosynthetic activity along a depth transect in the sandy northeastern Gulf of Mexico shelf

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