Trends in indicators of eutrophication in Western Long Island Sound and the Hudson-Raritan Estuary

Significant improvements in water quality have been observed for several decades throughout much of the Hudson-Raritan Estuary, primarily as a result of regional abatement of municipal and industrial discharges. These improvements include area-wide, order-of-magnitude reductions in ambient coliform concentrations and significant increases in dissolved oxygen (DO) concentrations. In contrast to these improvements, DO in bottom waters of the western Long Island Sound (WLIS) appears to have decreased in the last two decades. Although there is no consensus as to why hypoxia in WLIS may have recently become more severe, several related hypotheses have been suggested, including an increase in eutrophication, increased density stratification, and changes in wastewater loads. To determine if eutrophication has increased in WLIS, trends in several indicators of eutrophication were examined from a long-term water quality data set. Since the mid-1980s surface DO supersaturation has increased, bottom minimum DO has decreased, and vertical DO stratification has increased in WLIS. Other areas of the Hudson-Raritan Estuary, such as Jamaica Bay and Raritan Bay, exhibit similar evidence of declining water quality and may be experiencing increasing eutrophication. Temporal changes in vertical density stratification indicate that surface to bottom temperature differences have increased to a greater extent and have had a more significant impact on bottom DO depletion in WLIS than in the shallower Jamaica Bay and Raritan Bay. Additional factors contributing to the observed decline in water quality include recent changes in wastewater loads and possible increases in upstream and nonpoint source loads.