A Model Study of Hypoxia in the Rappahannock Estuary, Verginia

Hypoxia has persisted during summer in the bottom water of the lower portion of the Rappahannock Estuary, a western shore tributary of Chesapeake Bay. A laterally integrated two-dimensional, real-time model, consisting of linked hydrodynamic and water quality models, was developed to study the contributing processes for hypoxia. The hydrodynamic model gives the information of physical transport processes, both advective and diffusive, to the water quality model, which simulates the spatial and temporal distributions of eight water quality state variables. (omitted)