Within the last couple of months, research on the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico (an oxygen-starved area caused by fertilizer runoff from the Midwest farm belt) stated that its size would be the biggest on record. This prediction was due to a rise in rainfall in states such as Minnesota and Illinois, causing lots of runoff into the dead zone. Researchers from the University of Michigan, Louisiana State University and LUMCON predicted a dead zone the size of New Jersey approx. 8,561 sq miles.
However, after getting results from the summer mapping, reports came saying that the dead zone had in fact decreased in size - approx. 5,800 sq miles or the size of Connecticut. According to Nancy Rabalais, the executive director of LUMCON, weather conditions most likely mixed oxygen with the hypoxic water, decreasing the size of the dead zone.
I think that the decrease in the dead zone is excellent news and that the complete disappearance of the dead zone should be a country-wide goal.
Source: http://science.time.com/category/ecocentric/
Yay I’m glad the dead zone is substantially smaller than what was suspected. Like you were saying Victoria the chemicals that farmers use are very harmful to the environment, especially bodies of water. Due to the lack of oxygen in this hypoxic area fish are unable to “breath” in the oxygen necessary to their survival. The researchers were saying that because more oxygen was entering the hypoxic area it’s no longer as harmful to sea-life. As a possible solution to end or deplete these dead zones farmers could use organic fertilizers and chemicals. Although it would definitely be more expensive it would be worth it.
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