Century-scale changes in temperature, salinity, and dissolved oxygen in Puget Sound

These data accompany a paper submitted to Geophysical Research Letters. The abstract is below.

Over the last century, coastal oceans are losing ecosystem-critical dissolved oxygen (DO). Changing coastal ocean conditions influence water properties in connected estuaries, which are also influenced by anthropogenic processes. We analyze nearly 100 years of temperature, salinity, and DO data in Puget Sound - a temperate, fjordal, urbanized estuary in Washington State, USA and the southernmost region of the Salish Sea - during fall at the bottom of the water column. We observe warming of about 1.4°C/century, consistent with regional trends and similar to coastal ocean and local atmospheric warming. Salinity is generally increasing, possibly due to shifting regional freshwater flow timing. Finally, central Puget Sound is losing DO at a rate of 0.3-0.9 mg/L/century. Warming-driven changes in DO surface saturation account for approximately 40-100% of this DO loss. Distal inlets in Puget Sound are warming similarly, but variability exceeds the measured DO trends.