Gulf of Mexico's 'Dead Zone' largest on record: NOAA

by Rich Bowden - Jul 15 2008, 23:50

U.S. researchers have forecasted that this summer's "dead zone" off the coast of Louisiana and Texas in the Gulf of Mexico will be the largest ever recorded.

Image: Mississippi River carrying fertilizer to the Gulf of Mexico. Credit: NASA

A team of scientists from the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium and Louisiana State University (LSU), who are supported by the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), say the zone will cover an area of 8,800 square miles or roughly the size of New Jersey, said an NOAA release.The dead zone is where there is a lack of life in bottom or near bottom waters caused by seasonal oxygen levels which drop too low to support most sea life. It is caused by an excess of nutrients from fertilizers and other sources that stimulate an overgrowth of algae, which then sinks and decomposes and robs the seawater of its oxygen. Researchers are concerned that the phenomenon will not only cause severe environmental damage but also affect commercial and recreational fisheries.Scientists began taking measurements of the zone in 1985 with the previous largest area being recorded in 2002, when it measured 8,481 square miles."The prediction of a large dead zone this summer is due to a combination of large influx of nitrogen and exceptionally high flows from the Mississippi and Atchafalaya rivers,” said LSU scientist R. Eugene Turner.Experts say the amount of nitrogen dumped into the Gulf of Mexico over the last fifty years has led to the dramatic increase in the size of the dead zone.“The strong link between nutrients and the dead zone indicates that excess nutrients from the Mississippi River watershed during the spring are the primary human-influenced factor behind the expansion of the dead zone,” said Rob Magnien, director of NOAA's Center for Sponsored Coastal Ocean Research. “This analysis will greatly inform the development of federal, state and local efforts to reduce the dead zone’s size.”NOAA has funded research into the problem of the dead zone since 1990.For video animation of the dead zone click here.

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Gulf of Mexico's 'Dead Zone' largest on record: NOAA

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