Nutrient-Enhanced Coastal Ocean Productivity: Proceedings Of 1994 Synthesis Workshop, Baton Rouge, Louisiana

The NOAA Nutrient Enhanced Coastal Ocean Productivity (NECOP) program started in 1990. The program is focused on the outflows of the Mississippi River and its tributary, the Atchafalaya River, and the impact of that outflow on the Northern Gulf of Mexico coastal waters. Given that the predominant coastal flow near the Mississippi Delta is to the west most of the NECOP effort has been directed to the area west of the outflow, and particularly on the Louisiana Inner Shelf. Monitoring since the mid 1980's has revealed that summer hypoxia develops on an annual basis over much of this shelf. Much of the NECOP investigtion has dealt with this hypoxia, the extent and timing of its occurrence, causal factors, impacts, and history through restrospective analysis. In 1994, NECOP principals met to develop an initial synthesis of the program results and to make plans for a program final synthesis. This document constitutes a report of that meeting and, in itself, is one of the synthesis products from the NECOP program.