Abstract
The Mississippi River is the largest river in North America. It drains 2.979 106 km2, including 41% of the lower 48 United States and parts of two Canadian provinces. The effluent from this system is debouched into the Gulf of Mexico through the modern birdfoot delta of the Mississippi River and through a secondary outlet, the Atchafalaya River delta. Under the influence of the Coriolis force, a significant portion of these waters flows westward along the Louisiana coast as the highly stratified Louisiana Coastal Current (Wiseman and Kelly, 1994). Each summer, hypoxic or, occasionally, anoxic conditions develop beneath the associated halocline. (Hypoxia is defined operationally as dissolved oxygen concentrations less than 2 mg/1 (Rabalais, et al. 1991).)
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Wiseman, W.J., Turner, R.E., Justic, D., Rabalais, N.N. (2004). Hypoxia and the Physics of the Louisiana Coastal Current. In: Nihoul, J.C.J., Zavialov, P.O., Micklin, P.P. (eds) Dying and Dead Seas Climatic Versus Anthropic Causes. NATO Science Series: IV: Earth and Environmental Sciences, vol 36. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0967-6_15
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0967-6_15
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