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Abstract

Oxygen depletion in bottom waters of lakes and coastal regions is expanding worldwide. To examine the causes of hypoxia, we quantified the drivers of benthic oxygen uptake in Green Bay, Lake Michigan, USA, using 2 techniques, aquatic eddy covariance and sediment core incubation. We investigated benthic oxygen uptake along a gradient in C deposition, including shallow water near the riverine source of eutrophication and deeper waters of lower Green Bay where high net sediment deposition occurs. Time-averaged eddy covariance oxygen uptake was high near the source of eutrophication (11.5 mmol m−2 d−1) and at the shallower of the high deposition sites (9.8 mmol m−2 d−1). The eddy covariance technique revealed a decrease in benthic oxygen uptake with depth at the high deposition sites. These patterns were consistent with benthic uptake being driven by the deposition of autochthonous production. Additionally, eddy covariance revealed a nearly proportional relationship between benthic oxygen uptake and current velocity at all sites. Specifically, because of the lake seiche, water velocity typically varied 3× at a site and caused a 3× variation in benthic oxygen uptake. A summer storm also doubled bottom-water velocities and caused a further doubling of uptake to 28 mmol m−2 d−1. This high sensitivity of benthic oxygen uptake to seiche-driven water velocities indicates that redox conditions in surficial cohesive sediments are highly dynamic.