Expanding oxygen-minimum zones in the tropical oceans
Expanding oxygen-minimum zones in the tropical oceans
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DOI:
10.1126/science.1153847
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发表时间:
2008-05-02
期刊:
影响因子:
56.9
通讯作者:
Mohrholz, Volker
中科院分区:
文献类型:
--
作者:
Stramma, Lothar;Johnson, Gregory C.;Mohrholz, Volker
Oxygen-poor waters occupy large volumes of the intermediate- depth eastern tropical oceans. Oxygen- poor conditions have far- reaching impacts on ecosystems because important mobile macroorganisms avoid or cannot survive in hypoxic zones. Climate models predict declines in oceanic dissolved oxygen produced by global warming. We constructed 50- year time series of dissolved- oxygen concentration for select tropical oceanic regions by augmenting a historical database with recent measurements. These time series reveal vertical expansion of the intermediate- depth low- oxygen zones in the eastern tropical Atlantic and the equatorial Pacific during the past 50 years. The oxygen decrease in the 300- to 700- m layer is 0.09 to 0.34 micromoles per kilogram per year. Reduced oxygen levels may have dramatic consequences for ecosystems and coastal economies.