The Potomac River spills over Great Falls west of Washington, D.C.. Marli Miller/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty ImagesAs climate change warms rivers, they are losing dissolved oxygen from their water. This process, which is called deoxygenation, was already known to be occurring in large bodies of water, like oceans and lakes. A study that colleagues and I just published in Nature Climate Change shows that it is happening in rivers as well. We documented this change using a type of artific
Deoxygenation is commonly observed in oceans and lakes but less expected in shallower, flowing rivers. Here we reconstructed daily water temperature and dissolved oxygen in 580 rivers across the United States and 216 rivers in Central Europe by training a deep learning model using temporal weather and water quality data and static watershed attributes (for example, hydro-climate, topography, land use, soil). Results revealed persistent warming in 87% and deoxygenation in 70% of the rivers. Urban rivers demonstrated the most rapid warming, whereas agricultural rivers experienced the slowest warming but fastest deoxygenation. Mean deoxygenation rates (−0.038 ± 0.026 mg l−1 decade−1) were higher than those in oceans but lower than those in temperate lakes. These rates, however, may be underestimated, as training data are from grab samples collected during the day when photosynthesis peaks. Projected future rates are between 1.6 and 2.5
Mass fish casualties resulting from low dissolved oxygen levels are most common in the late spring and early summer, according to the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department. But there have been multiple fish kill events in the Galveston area this month.
“For more than two years, we have been escalating the issue of sewage entry into the lake. The entire sewage line on the 2nd main road of Soudhamini layout, which is more than 15 years old, is to be changed with bigger size pipes along with large chambers,” said Soundarajan, a resident who lives near the Doddakallasandra lake.