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To investigate the mass mortality of the macrobenthos community, primarily asari clams, triggered by upwelling-driven hypoxia, we conducted continuous observations of temperature, salinity, and DO, and monthly macrobenthos monitoring on the Rokujo tidal flat in Mikawa Bay, central Japan, from 2014 to 2016. Additionally, laboratory experiments were conducted using sediments on a tidal flat containing macrobenthos to examine the possibility of hydrogen sulfide formation in tidal flats. The bottom layer at the offshore station was intermittently hypoxic, and the station of the tidal flat was occasionally hypoxic in August and September for three years. Hypoxia was mostly observed on the tidal flat when constant easterly winds were recorded offshore. The biomass of asari clams decreased considerably from September to October 2016 when hypoxia was intermittent. Hypoxia persisted for approximately one week from 20 September, which was associated with the calm weather and stagnation of tidal currents owing to the neap tide. Conversely, the hydrogen sulfide concentration in the water directly above the sediment exceeded 30 mg L−1 after 3 days of incubation in the laboratory experiment. Therefore, the possibility of oxygen consumption on tidal flats due to hydrogen sulfide formed by biological die-offs was considered in the long-term persistence of hypoxia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The quantitative effects of hydrodynamic conditions on sediment oxygen demand (SOD) under smooth surface conditions were investigated using the following three practical and compact experimental systems: (1) a continuous flow system containing sediment core samples; (2) a rectangular flume system; and (3) a system combining the first two. Experimental results demonstrated that SOD showed a monotonically increasing tendency as the flow velocity increased with reduction of the thickness of the diffusive boundary layer. The experimental results were compared with numerical models theoretically relating SOD and flow velocity under smooth surface conditions. The features of each experimental system are discussed. The continuous flow system is advantageous because it simultaneously produces a steady state and different dissolved oxygen (DO) conditions. The rectangular flume system is suitable for fundamental studies of hydrodynamic effects on SOD because it makes controlling hydrodynamic conditions easy, while the combined system is appropriate for studying the effect of microscopic phenomena on exchange rates, as it can reproduce natural microscopic physicochemical processes. DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)0733-9372(2009)135:11(1161) CE Database subject headings: Sediment; Oxygen demand; Boundary layers; Dissolved oxygen; Model analysis; Quantitative analysis; Hydrodynamics.

WRF simulations were conducted for Ise Bay, Japan for January and July 2016 to evaluate sensitivity of model input and output above sea surface to the replacement of three default input datasets with region-specific input datasets. For atmospheric input data, a final analysis created by the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP-FNL) was replaced with a mesoscale analysis created by the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA). Topography and land use dataset released by the US Geological Survey were replaced with dataset released by the GeoSpatial Information authority of Japan. For sea surface temperature (SST) data, NCEP-FNL was replaced with an analysis created by JMA. Of the three region-specific datasets, replacement of atmospheric data results in the largest improvements in the accuracy of simulated wind speeds in January and July and of temperature in July 2016. Improvements in model output accuracy over sea surface can be seen near the coastline by replacing topography and land use data. Replacement of SST data results in the largest improvements in simulated temperature accuracy in January 2016. Replacing all three default input datasets results in the largest improvement, and expands on results from previous studies that focused on the effects of replacing only one input data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]