Widespread functional anoxia in the oxygen minimum zone of the Eastern South Pacific

Oxygen minimum zones (OMZs) as found in the Eastern Pacific and Indian Ocean are biogeochemical hot spots with a disproportionately large role in the marine nitrogen cycle, and they are important components of the highly productive ecosystems in which they occur. Although the oxygen-depleted waters have been known for a century, oxygen levels inside them are not well constrained and the regulation of their anaerobic processes by oxygen is poorly understood. We deployed highly sensitive STOX oxygen sensors with a detection limit of 10 nmol kg−1 in combination with conventional hydrographic oxygen sensors along a cruise track transecting the Eastern South Pacific OMZ from South to North along the coast of Chile and Peru. Oxygen was below the detection limit throughout the ∼200 m thick OMZ core in most casts with STOX sensors. The only exception was an offshore location off Peru where oxygen was 10–50 nmol kg−1 in the core, likely as the result of a transient intrusion. Oxygen was also not detected in the OMZ core in further casts with conventional sensors, which had a detection limit of 90 nmol kg−1 after STOX-based zero calibration. Our measurements tighten the constraints on typical oxygen concentrations in the inner part of the OMZ by at least an order of magnitude relative to previous reports. Nitrite only accumulated when oxygen was depleted below 50 nmol kg−1, which indicates that nitrogen cycling is much more sensitive to oxygen than previously estimated. We argue that extreme oxygen depletion to low nanomalar or even picomolar concentrations is a normal condition in the South Pacific OMZ, and suggest that the OMZ core is in fact functionally anoxic over wide regions for extended periods. Our results further indicate that oxygen dynamics in the low nanomolar range play an important role in OMZ biogeochemistry.

► Oxygen determined with detection limit of 10 nmol kg−1.
► Oxygen undetectable in the OMZ core along 1200 km of the South American coastline.
► Efficient nitrite oxidation with low nanomolar oxygen.
► Nanomolar oxygen dynamics may influence OMZ biogeochemistry.