|
About | Contact | Mongabay on Facebook | Mongabay on Twitter | Subscribe |
|
|
U.S. dead zones may reach record levels this summer mongabay.com July 15, 2008
Donald Scavia, a professor at the University of Michigan's School of Natural Resources and Environment, uses models driven by nutrient load estimates from the U.S. Geological Survey to makes the annual forecast. Scavia predicts that Chesapeake Bay's summer dead zone will be 9.9 cubic kilometers (2.4 cubic miles), the sixth-highest on record, although if the area of low oxygen reaches the upper value of the forecast range of 12.3 cubic kilometers (3 cubic miles), it will be the highest on record.
"The growth of these dead zones is an ecological time bomb," said Scavia. "Without determined local, regional, and national efforts to control them, we are putting major fisheries at risk." According to Scavia, the best way to shrink the dead zones is to reduce the amount of nitrogen and phosphorous flowing into these water basins. A dead zone, or area of hypoxia, is an expanse of water so devoid of oxygen that sea life cannot live in it. In the United States, these areas usually form in spring months largely as a result from runoff of nitrogen-based fertilizers. The excess nitrogen — and phosphorous — trigger massive algal blooms. When the bloom dies, the algae sinks to the sea flood where it is broken down by bacteria. The decomposition process saps the ocean of oxygen, choking marine life. The dead zone eventually dissipates in the fall due to changes in water currents and temperatures. Scavia's Hypoxia forecasts This article is based on a statement from the University of Michigan
Tags: fertilizers farming agriculture united states environment pollution oceans dead zone hypoxia green News index | RSS | News Feed | Twitter | Home Advertisements: Organic Apparel from Patagonia | Insect-repelling clothing
|
WEEKLY NEWSLETTER 
Photos HIGH RESOLUTION PHOTOS / PRINTS 
CALENDARS 
CANVAS BAGS 
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Copyright mongabay 2010 Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions generated from mongabay.com operations (server, data transfer, travel) are mitigated through an association with Anthrotect, an organization working with Afro-indigenous and Embera communities to protect forests in Colombia's Darien region. Anthrotect is protecting the habitat of mongabay's mascot: the scale-crested pygmy tyrant. |
