Gulf of Mexico 'dead zone', caused by fertilizer run-off, fourth smallest since 1985 (but it's not all good news) - Entrepreneur Generations

The 2018 Gulf of Mexico dead zone. (Louisiana State University map)

The annual low-oxygen 'dead zone' along Louisiana's Gulf Coast is only 2,720 square miles this year -- much smaller than in recent years, according to a team of researchers from Louisiana State University, the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Mark Schleifstein reports for The Times-Picayune. That's only one-third the size of last year's record-breaking 8,776 square-mile dead zone and significantly smaller than the 5,770 square-mile average since 2014.

But it's hard to draw conclusions from the smaller area of this year's dead zone. Marine scientist Nancy Rabalais told Schleifstein that strong winds in the weeks before the July 24-28 monitoring cruise likely pushed the largest concentrations of low-oxygen water further out. This year's dead-zone is similarly sized to others that occurred in years with the same weather patterns, such as 2014.

The dead zone is bolstered by fertilizer run-off from Midwestern farms that flows down the Mississippi River and feeds algae in the Gulf. When the algae die and sink to the bottom of the Gulf, microorganisms break them down, which uses up the oxygen in the water. "This year's smaller dead zone also comes as a surprise because the amount of nutrients carried by the river in May was at near-record levels. LSU oceanographer Gene Turner had predicted then that, based on the river's nutrient levels, the dead zone would be 6,570 square miles," Schleifstein reports.

from The Rural Blog https://ift.tt/2OyLP3q Gulf of Mexico 'dead zone', caused by fertilizer run-off, fourth smallest since 1985 (but it's not all good news) - Entrepreneur Generations

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