Abstract
Abstract. We show that from 1955 to 2015, the inventory of oxygen in the Black Sea has decreased by 44 % and the basin-averaged oxygen penetration depth has decreased from 140 m in 1955 to 90 m in 2015, which is the shallowest annual value recorded during that period. The oxygenated Black Sea surface layer separates the world's largest reservoir of toxic hydrogen sulfide from the atmosphere. The threat of chemocline excursion events led to hot debates in the past decades arguing on the vertical stability of the Black Sea oxic/suboxic interface. In the 1970s and 1980s, when the Black Sea faced severe eutrophication, enhanced respiration rates reduced the thickness of the oxygenated layer. Re-increasing oxygen inventory in 1985–1995 supported arguments in favor of the stability of the oxic layer. Concomitant with a reduction of nutrient loads, it also supported the perception of a Black Sea recovering from eutrophication. More recently, atmospheric warming was shown to reduce the ventilation of the lower oxic layer by lowering cold intermediate layer (CIL) formation rates. The debate on the vertical migration of the oxic interface also addressed the natural spatial variability affecting Black Sea properties when expressed in terms of depth. Here we show that using isopycnal coordinates does not overcome the significant spatial variability of oxygen penetration depth. By considering this spatial variability, the analysis of a composite historical set of oxygen profiles evidenced a significant shoaling of the oxic layer, and showed that the transient "recovery" of the 1990s was mainly a result of increased CIL formation rates during that period. As both atmospheric warming and eutrophication are expected to increase in the near future, monitoring the dynamics of the Black Sea oxic layer is urgently required to assess the threat of further shoaling.
Highlights
The Black Sea deep waters constitutes the world’s largest reservoir of toxic hydrogen sulfide. 100 m of ventilated surface waters are all that separate this reservoir from the atmosphere
The present study describes the application of the DIVA (Data-Interpolating Variational Analysis) detrending procedure (Troupin et al, 2012; Capet et al, 2014) to untangle the temporal and spatial variability of three indices related to the Black Sea oxygenation status: the depth and density level of oxygen penetration and the oxygen inventory
A range of approximately 70 m was observed between oxygen penetration depth in the periphery (150 m) and in the central part (80 m)
Summary
The Black Sea deep waters constitutes the world’s largest reservoir of toxic hydrogen sulfide. 100 m of ventilated surface waters are all that separate this reservoir from the atmosphere. 100 m of ventilated surface waters are all that separate this reservoir from the atmosphere This situation results from the permanent halocline (Öszoy and Ünlüata, 1997) that separates the surface layer (of low salinity due to river inflow) from the deeper layer (of high salinity due to inflowing Mediterranean seawater), restraining ventilation to the upper layer (Fig. 1). In the lower part of the halocline, a permanent suboxic layer separates the Black Sea surface oxygenated waters ([O2] > 20 μM) from the deep sulfidic waters ([H2S] > 20 μM) (Murray et al, 1989, 1995; Tugrul et al, 1992). Murray et al (1989) considered a threshold of 10 μM of oxygen because they analyzed highquality oxygen data. Increasing flux of organic matter, induced by a period of high nutrient load from
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