Matthew J. Young
Tamara E. C. Kraus
Elizabeth B. Stumpner
Darren Fong
Kurt D. Carpenter
Frederick V. Feyrer
2024
<div id="Abs1-section" class="c-article-section"><div id="Abs1-content" class="c-article-section__content"><p>Ecological disturbances such as fish kills can negatively impact ecosystem processes in coastal lagoons. To gain an understanding of factors causing fish kills, we examined conditions associated with a summertime fish kill in a northeastern Pacific coastal lagoon (Rodeo Lagoon, CA, USA). Examination of available data indicated the fish kill was likely caused by hypoxia involving the following etiology: (1) strong onshore winds (up to 12 m/s) mixed a stratified water column, (2) water column mixing transported nutrients from near the bed into the photic zone, (3) increased nutrient concentrations in the photic zone (> 200%) together with high solar irradiance fueled a phytoplankton bloom, (4) death and decomposition of phytoplankton (72% decrease in abundance) contributed to biological oxygen demand that led to (5) hypoxic conditions (as low as 0.6 mg/L) that caused the fish kill. The event resulted in the death of an estimated 3677 Tidewater Goby (<i>Eucyclogobius newberryi</i>), a species listed as endangered under the US Endangered Species Act, and numerous (but not enumerated) Threespine Stickleback (<i>Gasterosteus aculeatus</i>), unidentified sculpins (Cottidae), and macroinvertebrates (primarily Amphipoda). The processes contributing to the event are likely re-occurring phenomena responsible for observed periodic fish kills. Coastal lagoons with limited freshwater inflows and connection to the Pacific Ocean may retain nutrients and be susceptible to similar events.</p></div></div>
application/pdf
10.1007/s12237-023-01300-z
en
Springer
Etiology of a fish kill, Including the endangered Tidewater Goby (Eucyclogobius newberryi), in a northeastern pacific coastal lagoon
article