Appendix I. Sources of data on the extent of hypoxia, and fisheries landings, and nitrogen loadings
plotted in Fig. 1.
Data sources
References for each system are listed in Supplemental Table 1. We were unable to find any references
suggesting that hypoxia occurred on a regular basis in the Aegean Sea, Balearic Sea, Ionian Sea, or Sea of
Levant. L. Denis of the Université des Sciences et Technologies de Lille 1 verified the lack of hypoxia in
the Gulf of Lions. Drs. Jonathan Sharp and Timothy Targett, both of whom have studied hypoxia in
Delaware Bay and nearby systems, estimated the percentage of bottom area that becomes hypoxic
during summer to be <<1%. D. Jasinski (EPA-Chesapeake Bay Program) calculated the percentage of
hypoxic bottom area of the mainstem Chesapeake Bay and mesohaline and polyhaline portions of its
tributaries during recent years with severe hypoxia based on extensive water quality monitoring in that
system. Ongoing modeling suggests that values used here may underestimate the spatial extent of
hypoxia in the Baltic system (J. Anderson, DHI Water & Environment, Inc.)
Fisheries landings data include finfish and mobile shellfish for 1990–2004, or as many years within that
timeframe as feasible. Both commercial and recreational landings are included, but aquaculture was
excluded from the data.
Independence of systems
It would be reasonable, from the standpoint of biological and statistical independence, to group nearby
semi-enclosed seas within the Mediterranean system, and to group the Black and adjacent Azov Seas.
Doing so does not change the pattern of the relationship between fisheries landings and hypoxia, low
landings in systems with extensive or persistent anoxia release of sulfides, or the relationship between N
loadings and fisheries landings. We chose to plot points separately so that the information in the figure
would be comparable to previous analyses of these systems described by Caddy (2000) and de Leiva
Moreno et al. (2000).
Supplemental Table 1. Bottom hypoxia, fisheries landings and nitrogen loads, and associated sources, for each of
the study systems.
Bottom
area
hypoxica,
%
Source
Adriatic Sea
1.4
Dalla Via et
al., 1994
92 138
FAO, 2006
300 529
Borysova et al.,
2005; Salvetti et
al., 2006; Seitzinger
et al., 2002;
Zavatarelli et al.,
2000
Aegean Sea
0
c
127 990
FAO, 2006
†
-
Balearic Sea
0
c
256 936
FAO, 2006
†
-
Baltic Sea (main
basin + Gulf of
Riga)
41.78
Karlson et al.,
2002
699 569
FAO, 2006
1 410 000
Savchuk, 2005
Belt Sea and
Øresund
46
Ǽrtebjerg &
Carstensen,
2003
59 670
FAO, 2006
501 000
Savchuk, 2005
Black Sea
76.6
Mee et al.,
2005;
Prodanov et
al., 1997
363 866
FAO, 2006
740 810
Borysova et al.,
2005; Polat, 2000;
Seitzinger et al.,
2002; Teodoru et
al., 2007
Ionian Sea
0
c
213 421
FAO, 2006
†
-
Irish Sea
0
CEFAS, 2006;
Dickson, 1987
43 252
FAO, 2006
157 768
Seitzinger et al.,
2002; Smith et al.,
2003
Gulf of Bothnia
0
Karlson et al.,
2002
69 550
FAO, 2006
158 000
Savchuk, 2005
System/Location
Fisheries
landings b,
Source
tonnes y−1
Basin N loads,
watershed +
atmospheric;
Source
tonnes y−1
Europe
Gulf of Finland
25.35
Andersin &
Sandler,
1991; Laine
et al., 1997,
2007
47 501
FAO, 2006
153 000
Savchuk, 2005
Gulf of Lions
0
c
35 923
FAO, 2006
†
-
North Sea
0
Druon et al.,
2004
2 425 312
FAO, 2006
2 483 600
Brion et al., 2004
Sea of Azov
40
Debol’skaya
et al., 2005
20 072
FAO, 2006
54 337
Borysova et al.,
2005; Seitzinger et
al., 2002
Sea of Levant
0
c
84 451
FAO, 2006
†
-
SkagerrakKattegat
9.5
Ǽrtebjerg &
Carstensen,
2003
230 811
FAO, 2006
531 500
Savchuk, 2005
Sea of Marmara
73.64
Baykut et al.,
1987;
Besiktepe et
al., 1994
52 623
FAO, 2006
255 500
Seitzinger et al.,
2002; Tugrul and
Polat, 1995
Chesapeake Bay
18
D. Jasinski,
pers. comm;
Bahner, 2003
193 683
NOAA-CBO,
2005;
Vaughan et
al., 2002
163 050
Castro et al.,
2003;Cerco, 1995;
Chesapeake Bay
Program, 2006
Corpus Christi
Bay
9.98
P. Montagne,
pers. comm.
1 020
Culbertson
et al., 2004;
Green &
Campbell,
2005
10 710
Castro et al., 2003;
D. Scavia, unpub.
data
Delaware Bay
0
T.Targett,
pers. comm.
7 414
Whitmore &
Cole, 2002;
59 070
Castro et al., 2003;
D. Scavia, unpubl.
data
N. America
Whitmore,
2003
Galveston Bay
0
J. Pinckney &
S. Johnston,
pers. comm.
3 168
Culbertson
et al., 2004;
Green &
Campbell,
2005
96 550
Castro et al., 2003;
D. Scavia, unpubl.
data
Gulf of Mexico
(Northern)
27.19
Rabalais et
al., 2007
625 725
NOAA
Southeast
Fisheries
Science
Center, pers.
comm. d
1 615 899
USGS, 2007;
Howarth, 1998
Long Island
Sound
31.1
CTDEP, 2007
26 729
AACSP,
2006;
CTDEP e,
NYSDEC f, &
NMFS g pers.
comm
57 030
CTDEP/NYSDEC,
2000; HydroQual,
2004
Neuse River
Estuary
25.5
Buzzelli et al.,
2002
2 226
NCDMF, pers.
comm. h;
Vogelsong &
Nobles, 2004
9 948
Burkholder et al.,
2006; Castro et al.,
2003; D. Scavia,
unpubl. data
Tampa Bay
13.3
Janicki et al.,
2001
4 543
FFWCCij &
NMFS g,
pers. comm.
13 460
Castro et al., 2003;
D. Scavia, unpubl.
data
a
≤ 3 mg DO l−1; percentage hypoxic area calculated as 100 × (bottom area hypoxic/system surface area); b
Recreational and commercial landings of finfish and mobile macro-invertebrates only; c Value based on a variety of
sources and is intended only as a gross estimate, not an exact number; d NOAA- National Marine Fisheries Service,
Southeast Fisheries Science Center (http://www.sefsc.noaa.gov/); e Connecticut Department of Environmental
Protection (http://www.ct.gov/dep), personal communication; f New York Department of Environmental
Conservation (http://www.dec.ny.gov), personal communication; g National Marine Fisheries Service, Fisheries
Statistics Division, Silver Spring, MD (http://www.st.nmfs.gov/st1/), personal communication; h North Carolina
Division of Marine Fisheries, personal communication; i Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission,
personal communication; † No data have been included to date.
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