Dead zones in the ocean refer to vast stretches of water that cannot sustain marine life. Â A study published today reports that dead zones have been doubling every 10 years since 1960s and 400 coastal areas now have periodically or permanently oxygen-starved bottom waters. The dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico alone has more than doubled in the last 20 years and is nearly the size of Massachusetts.
Scientists are blaming nitrogen-rich nutrients from crop fertilizers that spill into coastal waters.
Here is what 3 experts told the NY Times:
“Dr. Boesch, who was not affiliated with the study, said that the global proliferation of dead zones, once mainly a problem of the developed world, had been fueled by industrialization, changing eating habits and population growth, which has led to more fertilizer use and more waste in the world’s watersheds.”
Dead zones pose a serious threat to coastal ecosystems, said James N. Galloway, a professor of environmental science at the University of Virginia. But the challenge is, how do you manage fertilizer use without compromising the ability of the world to feed people?
Robert W. Howarth, a professor of ecology and environmental biology at Cornell, said that methods to reduce nitrogen-rich runoff exist, including planting winter rye or winter wheat in cornfields during the off-season so the spring rains do not cause the chemicals to leach into waterways.
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Related:
Inconvenient Truth of the Day
Ocean ‘Dead Zones’ on the Rise
CATEGORIES: Environment
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I guarantee this will be debunked in terms of the man made global warming mythos.
Scam.
Think locally. Act Locally. Govern Locally and MAYBE the planet will be a safer, healthier FREER place for everyone.
Locally?
Kent J, do you not realize that events on one side of the globe can have a dramatic effect on the other?
MAYBE, you should broaden your field of view and stop being so self-righteous.
If this expansion of ‘dead zones’ is allowed to continue in this way, the destruction of one ecosystem in a given local area is simply the beginning. If this is occurring in multiple locations (and it is), the destruction of these areas along coast lines can have a massive effect on the rest of the environment, both in the sea and on land.
For example, the expansion of these dead zones means that there is no longer any life, or food, in the area. The food chain collapses. This will start to effect the habitats of both marine and terrestrial animals as populations may no longer have a quantifiable food supply. As these animals leave their habitats (or die) in search of food, the life cycles of other animals becomes interrupted as there is now much more competition for their food-source than before. This will have a snow-balling effect as the problem escalates, starting to not only affect coastal regions, but eventually have an impact on creatures in the middle of the ocean, and even on land. One excellent example of this kind of reaction is the situation in which polar bears find themselves today in the Arctic.
This would also have a huge effect on the seafood industry as wild product becomes increasingly more scarce.
Now there’s a human issue, and there is a major food crisis already.
And I haven’t even mentioned the effects of poisoning from this chemical-laden run-off!
Now the ‘dead zone’ problem is no longer local. And as it continues in this fashion it becomes more of a global problem. Hopefully, farming practices will be more efficient and environmentally friendly before this happens…
These so called dead zones are opportunties for companies that will harvest the vast algae blooms from them and make it into fuel, and the various co-products. There are companies ramping up now to do so, but the opportunity is masively larger than present efforts to utilise those resources.