Abstract: The combination of human activities and natural factors has formed the eutrophication of the Changjiang (Yangtze River) Estuary and its adjacent waters, leading to increased hypoxic condition in the bottom water in summer, which has become an important signal of the deterioration of ecosystem health. This paper combs the important understandings gained from the recent studies of hypoxia in this area, analyzes multiscale temporal changes of dissolved oxygen, e.g., focusing on the tidalscale, eventscale, and interannual scale, and factors relevant to stratification and material transport. The relevant mechanisms analyzed includes processes such as the diluted water extension, Taiwan Warm Current, fronts, wind field and tides that affect oxygen consumption or transport process. It is also revealed that the main hypoxia phenomena were separated in the Changjiang Estuary and the coastal waters of Zhejiang Province. The similarities and differences in the formation and evolution of the two hypoxic zones were presented. At present, a solid foundation has been laid for the understanding of the hypoxia occurrence, however due to its multiscale temporal variations, field experiments and quantitative studies should be strengthened from a multidisciplinary perspective, and the longterm evolution trend of hypoxia in this area should also be clarified based on longterm time series monitoring.

Key words: East China Sea, Changjiang (Yangtze River) Estuary, hypoxia, mechanism, model