Hydro-environmental processes governing the formation of hypoxic parcels in an inverse estuarine water body: Model validation and discussion

Abstract

The mechanism of fish kill events is not thoroughly understood in Kuwait Bay (KB). However, it is obvious that fish kill events have a close relationship with hypoxia due to some biogeochemical processes. Hydrodynamics controls the dissolved oxygen (DO) concentration that occurs within various spatial and temporal scales. The current study utilizes a previously validated hydrodynamic model to drive a three-dimensional water quality model for KB. The water quality model was validated using comprehensive field measurements during the summer of 2018. Reasonable model computations were achieved to represent the general patterns of the DO in KB. The model computations reproduced the formation of hypoxic water parcels. Some minor fish kill events that occurred during summer 2018 correlated well with predicted hypoxic parcels. The hydro-environmental controls over the extent of the hypoxic parcels and interplaying forces shall be addressed in a separate article by the same authors.