Introduction

Routine, continuing and consistent data collections since 1985 have provided the necessary long-term data with which we can:

• document the temporal and spatial extent of hypoxia,
• identify the hydrographic, chemical, and biological data related to the development and maintenance of hypoxia,
• develop predictive models of relationships between riverine nutrient loading and the size of the hypoxic zone and its severity.

Understanding the physics is relevant to the study of biological processes, nutrient cycling, and dissolved oxygen dynamics. Likewise, physical measurements alone do not provide sufficient information to understand the development and maintenance of hypoxia. Documenting the extent of hypoxia over large areas and through time is essential in understanding its formation through an annual cycle. These observations provide a synthetic, interdisciplinary dataset that directly supports improved modeling, better understanding, and important strategies related to nutrient management scenarios within the Mississippi River basin and resource management in the Gulf of Mexico.

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