Hypoxia in the St. Lawrence Estuary: How a Coding Error Led to the Belief that “Physics Controls Spatial Patterns”

Two fundamental sign errors were found in a computer code used for studying the oxygen minimum zone (OMZ) and hypoxia in the Estuary and Gulf of St. Lawrence. These errors invalidate the conclusions drawn from the model, and call into question a proposed mechanism for generating OMZ that challenges...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inPloS one Vol. 10; no. 9; p. e0138858
Main Authors Bourgault, Daniel, Cyr, Frédéric
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States Public Library of Science 23.09.2015
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Subjects
Algorithms
Analysis
Boundary conditions
Canada
Coasts
Environmental aspects
Estuaries
Hypoxia
Hypoxia (Aquatic ecology)
Ocean circulation
Oxygen
Oxygen - analysis
Partial differential equations
Physics
Respiration
Software
Topography
Water Quality
Canada
Netherlands
Online AccessGet full text
ISSN1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI10.1371/journal.pone.0138858

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Summary:Two fundamental sign errors were found in a computer code used for studying the oxygen minimum zone (OMZ) and hypoxia in the Estuary and Gulf of St. Lawrence. These errors invalidate the conclusions drawn from the model, and call into question a proposed mechanism for generating OMZ that challenges classical understanding. The study in question is being cited frequently, leading the discipline in the wrong direction.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
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Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
Conceived and designed the experiments: DB FC. Performed the experiments: DB FC. Analyzed the data: DB FC. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: DB FC. Wrote the paper: DB FC. Participated in numerous exchanges (emails and in-person) with the authors of Lefort et al since the Spring of 2012: DB FC. Triplicated the model results presented in Fig 1b with two other independent models to make sure we did not make any error ourselves: DB FC.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0138858