New study shows effects of hypoxia in Florida's Banana River
A new study by Florida Tech assistant professor of marine sciences Austin Fox, Ph.D. '15, found that low oxygen levels are contributing to the rerelease of nutrients buried on the river floor that feed harmful algal blooms.
A new study by Florida Tech assistant professor of marine sciences Austin Fox, Ph.D. '15, found that low oxygen levels are contributing to the rerelease of nutrients buried on the river floor that feed harmful algal blooms.
The short version
- The study was based on the most widespread testing ever of oxygen levels across the Banana River.
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- "If you're a fish swimming in the water above the bottom, you may not even notice that there's an oxygen problem, because it's restricted to that very bottom layer.
What happened
What does notice are all the clams and the shrimp and the worms and all the things that dig around in the sediment," Fox said. This is one of the drivers of sediment-level hypoxia throughout the river.
Why it matters
Even though the hypoxic events can be brief, they are very frequent.
Summary by Nerd News Network. Read the full article at Phys.org via the links above and below.