Hi all,
The estuary is extremely well stratified from New Bern to the mouth. The salinity difference is the major driver of the stratification, but a temperature difference of ~4 degrees C is playing an unusually strong role in reinforcing the stratification. Bottom waters were hypoxic from New Bern to the mouth. There were no reports of rotten egg smell from the bottom waters. So the bottom waters were probably hypoxic rather than anoxic. A zone of high surface chlorophyll occurred from New Bern (station 30) to where the estuary widens at stations 60 and 70. From there downstream there was also a subsurface chlorophyll maximum along the pycnocline. I haven’t looked to see what was blooming.
Nathan