The Gulf dead zone

Chris

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May 30, 2008
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Researchers from Texas A&M University who have just returned from a visit to the Gulf of Mexico to explore the scope and size of this year’s dead zone have measured it to be currently around 8,500 square kilometres; approximately the same size as the states of Delaware and Rhode Island combined.

However researchers believe that 2011′s dead zone may continue to grow and become one of the largest ever, thanks in part to the record amounts of water being deposited into the Gulf from the Mississippi River.

Lead by Steve DiMarco, an oceanography professor at Texas A&M, the team of researchers traveled more than 2,300 kilometres throughout the Gulf of Mexico over a five day period. This was the first ever mission to focus on the dead zone’s size in June.

The dead zone off the coast of Louisiana has been continually monitored for about 25 years, and previous research has shown that nitrogen levels in the Gulf of Mexico intrinsically related to human activities have risen by 3 times over the past 50 years. Over the past 5 years, the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico has averaged around 15,000 square kilometres, but is predicted to exceed 24,000 square kilometres this year, making it one of the largest ever recorded, according to the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium.

Source: Planetsave (2011 Gulf Dead Zone Could Be Biggest Ever | Planetsave)
 
Interesting. The runoff from the Mississippi contain fertilizers and animal waste and this increases the hydrogen level in the water, creating a dead zone. Correct?

How big is the dead zone after winter storms break them up? Are there studies that compare and perhaps give us an idea of the overall size of dead zones spread out over the entire year?

by dead zone does that mean nothing can live there? Or only certain species cannot make it? Where do they go every spring? Do these species return in the fall?

Can we reverse this trend? Anyway to treat the dead zone with a chemical?
 
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Interesting. The runoff from the Mississippi contain fertilizers and animal waste and this increases the hydrogen level in the water, creating a dead zone. Correct?

How big is the dead zone after winter storms break them up? Are there studies that compare and perhaps give us an idea of the overall size of dead zones spread out over the entire year?

by dead zone does that mean nothing can live there? Or only certain species cannot make it? Where do they go every spring? Do these species return in the fall?

Can we reverse this trend? Anyway to treat the dead zone with a chemical?

Runoff increases nitrogen, not hydrogen. Can't answer all your questions, but dead zones usually mean lack of oxygen. If it goes low enough, nothing but anaerobic bacteria would survive.
 
The US is an economic dead zone. Let's continue to ilegalize all our REAL sources of energy - THAT'LL help the economy.
 
Interesting. The runoff from the Mississippi contain fertilizers and animal waste and this increases the hydrogen level in the water, creating a dead zone. Correct?

How big is the dead zone after winter storms break them up? Are there studies that compare and perhaps give us an idea of the overall size of dead zones spread out over the entire year?

by dead zone does that mean nothing can live there? Or only certain species cannot make it? Where do they go every spring? Do these species return in the fall?

Can we reverse this trend? Anyway to treat the dead zone with a chemical?

Runoff increases nitrogen, not hydrogen. Can't answer all your questions, but dead zones usually mean lack of oxygen. If it goes low enough, nothing but anaerobic bacteria would survive.

Good luck getting an explaination out of Chris.

The proper term for a "dead zone" is hypoxia, or low levels of oxygen. While the root cause is nutrients, the true cause is algae blooms that feed on the excess nutrients in the water.

Hypoxia in the gulf is likely a natural event, however human activties lead to it lasting longer and getting bigger. Nitrogen rich water from the missisippi mingles with gulf water. Algae grow rapidly in the high nutrient water, however the mats get so big that the lower strata of algae end up not getting sunlight, and then they die off. This decay leads to bateriological growth, and the uptake of oxygen beyond the ocean's ability to replenish.

Low oxgen leads to fish stress, fish death, sea floor die offs, and all sorts of bad stuff. The situation usually rectifes itself in winter, with higher DO diffusion rates, as well as lower biological activity rates.

To control nitgrogen you need to control and treat both farming runoff (hard) and wastewater nitrogen content (easier).
 
Researchers from Texas A&M University who have just returned from a visit to the Gulf of Mexico to explore the scope and size of this year’s dead zone have measured it to be currently around 8,500 square kilometres; approximately the same size as the states of Delaware and Rhode Island combined.

However researchers believe that 2011′s dead zone may continue to grow and become one of the largest ever, thanks in part to the record amounts of water being deposited into the Gulf from the Mississippi River.

Lead by Steve DiMarco, an oceanography professor at Texas A&M, the team of researchers traveled more than 2,300 kilometres throughout the Gulf of Mexico over a five day period. This was the first ever mission to focus on the dead zone’s size in June.

The dead zone off the coast of Louisiana has been continually monitored for about 25 years, and previous research has shown that nitrogen levels in the Gulf of Mexico intrinsically related to human activities have risen by 3 times over the past 50 years. Over the past 5 years, the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico has averaged around 15,000 square kilometres, but is predicted to exceed 24,000 square kilometres this year, making it one of the largest ever recorded, according to the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium.

Source: Planetsave (2011 Gulf Dead Zone Could Be Biggest Ever | Planetsave)

And it's the fault of the environuts, insisting we expand corn production for ethanol.

Got that? Environmentalists are killing the Gulf.
 
And it's the fault of the environuts, insisting we expand corn production for ethanol.

Got that? Environmentalists are killing the Gulf.

You'd rather pay them for not growing corn or are you too dumb to realize it's NOT the corn, but the fertilizer?!?!
 
Daveboy is truly too dumb.

The increasing number of dead zones, hypoxic and anoxic, that we are seeing is the result of both the chemicals we use in farming, and the increasing heat in the ocean. Add the increasing acifidification of the oceans to the mix, and we are set on destroying another major food source.

Hypoxia is increasing in the coastal zone of the Baltic Sea - Environmental Science & Technology (ACS Publications)


Daniel J. Conley , Jacob Carstensen , Juris Aigars , Philip Axe , Erik Bonsdorff , Tatjana Eremina , Britt-Marie Haahti , Christoph Humborg , Per Jonsson , Jonne Kotta , Christer Lännegren , Ulf Larsson , Alexey Maximov , Miguel Rodriguez Medina , Elzbieta Lysiak-Pastuszak , Nijolė Remeikaitė-Nikienė , Jakob Walve , Sunhild Wilhelms , and Lovisa Zillén
Environ. Sci. Technol., Just Accepted Manuscript
DOI: 10.1021/es201212r
Publication Date (Web): July 19, 2011
Copyright © 2011 American Chemical Society
AbstractHypoxia is a well-described phenomenon in the offshore waters of the Baltic Sea with both the spatial extent and intensity of hypoxia known to have increased due to anthropogenic eutrophication, however, an unknown amount of hypoxia is present in the Baltic Sea coastal zone. Here we report on the widespread unprecedented occurrence of hypoxia across the coastal zone of the Baltic Sea. We have identified 115 sites that have experienced hypoxia during the period 1955-2009 increasing the global total to ca. 500 sites, with the Baltic Seacoastal zone containing over 20% of all known sites world-wide. Most sites experienced episodic hypoxia, which is a precursor to development of seasonal hypoxia. The Baltic Sea coastal zone displays an alarming trend with hypoxia steadily increasing with time since the 1950s effecting nutrient biogeochemical processes, ecosystem services and coastal habitat.
 
Growing hypoxic zones reduce habitat for billfish and tuna

Growing Hypoxic Zones Reduce Habitat for Billfish and Tuna
ScienceDaily (Dec. 23, 2010) — Billfish and tuna, important commercial and recreational fish species, may be more vulnerable to fishing pressure because of shrinking habitat, according to a new study published by scientists from NOAA, The Billfish Foundation, and University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science.

An expanding zone of low oxygen, known as a hypoxic zone, in the Atlantic Ocean is encroaching upon these species' preferred oxygen-abundant habitat, forcing them into shallower waters where they are more likely to be caught.

During the study, published recently in the journal Fisheries Oceanography, scientists tagged 79 sailfish and blue marlin with satellite tracking devices in the western North Atlantic, off south Florida and the Caribbean; and eastern tropical Atlantic, off the coast of West Africa. The pop off archival satellite tags monitored horizontal and vertical movement patterns. Researchers confirmed that billfish prefer oxygen rich waters closer to the surface and will actively avoid waters low in oxygen
 
And it's the fault of the environuts, insisting we expand corn production for ethanol.

Got that? Environmentalists are killing the Gulf.

You'd rather pay them for not growing corn or are you too dumb to realize it's NOT the corn, but the fertilizer?!?!
I'm against farm subsidies, too.

And yes, moron, it's the fertilizer. What does fertilizer do? It maximizes yields. Of course farmers are going to use it. Duh.

Oh, and that fertilizer is made from natural gas.
 
Daveboy is truly too dumb.

The increasing number of dead zones, hypoxic and anoxic, that we are seeing is the result of both the chemicals we use in farming, and the increasing heat in the ocean. Add the increasing acifidification of the oceans to the mix, and we are set on destroying another major food source.

Hypoxia is increasing in the coastal zone of the Baltic Sea - Environmental Science & Technology (ACS Publications)


Daniel J. Conley , Jacob Carstensen , Juris Aigars , Philip Axe , Erik Bonsdorff , Tatjana Eremina , Britt-Marie Haahti , Christoph Humborg , Per Jonsson , Jonne Kotta , Christer Lännegren , Ulf Larsson , Alexey Maximov , Miguel Rodriguez Medina , Elzbieta Lysiak-Pastuszak , Nijolė Remeikaitė-Nikienė , Jakob Walve , Sunhild Wilhelms , and Lovisa Zillén
Environ. Sci. Technol., Just Accepted Manuscript
DOI: 10.1021/es201212r
Publication Date (Web): July 19, 2011
Copyright © 2011 American Chemical Society
AbstractHypoxia is a well-described phenomenon in the offshore waters of the Baltic Sea with both the spatial extent and intensity of hypoxia known to have increased due to anthropogenic eutrophication, however, an unknown amount of hypoxia is present in the Baltic Sea coastal zone. Here we report on the widespread unprecedented occurrence of hypoxia across the coastal zone of the Baltic Sea. We have identified 115 sites that have experienced hypoxia during the period 1955-2009 increasing the global total to ca. 500 sites, with the Baltic Seacoastal zone containing over 20% of all known sites world-wide. Most sites experienced episodic hypoxia, which is a precursor to development of seasonal hypoxia. The Baltic Sea coastal zone displays an alarming trend with hypoxia steadily increasing with time since the 1950s effecting nutrient biogeochemical processes, ecosystem services and coastal habitat.
And yet, oddly, I'm not so dumb I post an article about the Baltic Sea in a thread about the Gulf of Mexico.

Moron.
 
Daveboy is truly too dumb.

The increasing number of dead zones, hypoxic and anoxic, that we are seeing is the result of both the chemicals we use in farming, and the increasing heat in the ocean. Add the increasing acifidification of the oceans to the mix, and we are set on destroying another major food source.

Hypoxia is increasing in the coastal zone of the Baltic Sea - Environmental Science & Technology (ACS Publications)


Daniel J. Conley , Jacob Carstensen , Juris Aigars , Philip Axe , Erik Bonsdorff , Tatjana Eremina , Britt-Marie Haahti , Christoph Humborg , Per Jonsson , Jonne Kotta , Christer Lännegren , Ulf Larsson , Alexey Maximov , Miguel Rodriguez Medina , Elzbieta Lysiak-Pastuszak , Nijolė Remeikaitė-Nikienė , Jakob Walve , Sunhild Wilhelms , and Lovisa Zillén
Environ. Sci. Technol., Just Accepted Manuscript
DOI: 10.1021/es201212r
Publication Date (Web): July 19, 2011
Copyright © 2011 American Chemical Society
AbstractHypoxia is a well-described phenomenon in the offshore waters of the Baltic Sea with both the spatial extent and intensity of hypoxia known to have increased due to anthropogenic eutrophication, however, an unknown amount of hypoxia is present in the Baltic Sea coastal zone. Here we report on the widespread unprecedented occurrence of hypoxia across the coastal zone of the Baltic Sea. We have identified 115 sites that have experienced hypoxia during the period 1955-2009 increasing the global total to ca. 500 sites, with the Baltic Seacoastal zone containing over 20% of all known sites world-wide. Most sites experienced episodic hypoxia, which is a precursor to development of seasonal hypoxia. The Baltic Sea coastal zone displays an alarming trend with hypoxia steadily increasing with time since the 1950s effecting nutrient biogeochemical processes, ecosystem services and coastal habitat.
And yet, oddly, I'm not so dumb I post an article about the Baltic Sea in a thread about the Gulf of Mexico.

Moron.

You sure are cranky though.

Do you live alone?
 
Daveboy is truly too dumb.

The increasing number of dead zones, hypoxic and anoxic, that we are seeing is the result of both the chemicals we use in farming, and the increasing heat in the ocean. Add the increasing acifidification of the oceans to the mix, and we are set on destroying another major food source.

Hypoxia is increasing in the coastal zone of the Baltic Sea - Environmental Science & Technology (ACS Publications)


Daniel J. Conley , Jacob Carstensen , Juris Aigars , Philip Axe , Erik Bonsdorff , Tatjana Eremina , Britt-Marie Haahti , Christoph Humborg , Per Jonsson , Jonne Kotta , Christer Lännegren , Ulf Larsson , Alexey Maximov , Miguel Rodriguez Medina , Elzbieta Lysiak-Pastuszak , Nijolė Remeikaitė-Nikienė , Jakob Walve , Sunhild Wilhelms , and Lovisa Zillén
Environ. Sci. Technol., Just Accepted Manuscript
DOI: 10.1021/es201212r
Publication Date (Web): July 19, 2011
Copyright © 2011 American Chemical Society
AbstractHypoxia is a well-described phenomenon in the offshore waters of the Baltic Sea with both the spatial extent and intensity of hypoxia known to have increased due to anthropogenic eutrophication, however, an unknown amount of hypoxia is present in the Baltic Sea coastal zone. Here we report on the widespread unprecedented occurrence of hypoxia across the coastal zone of the Baltic Sea. We have identified 115 sites that have experienced hypoxia during the period 1955-2009 increasing the global total to ca. 500 sites, with the Baltic Seacoastal zone containing over 20% of all known sites world-wide. Most sites experienced episodic hypoxia, which is a precursor to development of seasonal hypoxia. The Baltic Sea coastal zone displays an alarming trend with hypoxia steadily increasing with time since the 1950s effecting nutrient biogeochemical processes, ecosystem services and coastal habitat.
And yet, oddly, I'm not so dumb I post an article about the Baltic Sea in a thread about the Gulf of Mexico.

Moron.

You sure are cranky though.

Do you live alone?
Nope. I live with my gorgeous wife and two beautiful, smart, and talented daughters.

And they know the difference between the Baltic Sea and the Gulf of Mexico, too. :lol:
 
Well, you silly dumb ass, the point went right over your brainless skull. It ain't just happening in the Gulf. It is a worldwide phenomonem. One which is threatening one of man's major sources of food.
 
Well, you silly dumb ass, the point went right over your brainless skull. It ain't just happening in the Gulf. It is a worldwide phenomonem. One which is threatening one of man's major sources of food.
Then you should have been able to find an article about the Gulf, then, huh?

But you didn't.

Meanwhile, environmentalists' push for ethanol is killing the Gulf. It's undeniable.
 
What is undeniable is that you are blaming a problem that Conservatives created on the Liberals.

President Bush | Ethanol | Promote Use

A call for less gasoline consumption
Bush is also calling for Americans to slash gasoline consumption by up to 20 percent by 2017.
Bush envisions the goal being achieved primarily through a sharp escalation in the amount of ethanol and other alternative fuels that the federal government mandates must be produced. The rest would come from raising fuel economy standards for passenger cars, Joel Kaplan, White House deputy chief of staff, said in advance of Bush's Tuesday night speech to a joint session of Congress.

The president is proposing to set the amount of ethanol and other alternative fuels to be blended into the fuel supply at 35 billion gallons by 2017, up from 7.5 billion gallons in 2012. He also wants to expand the standard to include not just ethanol but a wide range of oil alternatives, such as biodiesel, methanol, butanol and hydrogen, Kaplan said
 
What is undeniable is that you are blaming a problem that Conservatives created on the Liberals.

President Bush | Ethanol | Promote Use

A call for less gasoline consumption
Bush is also calling for Americans to slash gasoline consumption by up to 20 percent by 2017.
Bush envisions the goal being achieved primarily through a sharp escalation in the amount of ethanol and other alternative fuels that the federal government mandates must be produced. The rest would come from raising fuel economy standards for passenger cars, Joel Kaplan, White House deputy chief of staff, said in advance of Bush's Tuesday night speech to a joint session of Congress.

The president is proposing to set the amount of ethanol and other alternative fuels to be blended into the fuel supply at 35 billion gallons by 2017, up from 7.5 billion gallons in 2012. He also wants to expand the standard to include not just ethanol but a wide range of oil alternatives, such as biodiesel, methanol, butanol and hydrogen, Kaplan said

The land would be used for agriculture regardless of what the end product is. Even if not used for Ethanol we would export it, as basic foodstuffs is one of our current prime exports, and there are plenty of buyers for it.

The hypoxic region is a natural phenomenon, that has been exacerbated by human activity. The first step towards control is to get nitrogen removal processes onto your point sources, such as wastewater plants. After that the next would be attempts to treat runnoff from your higher nitrogen agricultural sources, via some sort of stormwater treatment.

In all honesty a 1-2 degree increase in temperature does not radically impact Dissolved oxygen capacity, or biological activitry. The limiting factor is excess nitrogen in the water, as well as possible excess phosphorous.
 
What is undeniable is that you are blaming a problem that Conservatives created on the Liberals.

President Bush | Ethanol | Promote Use

A call for less gasoline consumption
Bush is also calling for Americans to slash gasoline consumption by up to 20 percent by 2017.
Bush envisions the goal being achieved primarily through a sharp escalation in the amount of ethanol and other alternative fuels that the federal government mandates must be produced. The rest would come from raising fuel economy standards for passenger cars, Joel Kaplan, White House deputy chief of staff, said in advance of Bush's Tuesday night speech to a joint session of Congress.

The president is proposing to set the amount of ethanol and other alternative fuels to be blended into the fuel supply at 35 billion gallons by 2017, up from 7.5 billion gallons in 2012. He also wants to expand the standard to include not just ethanol but a wide range of oil alternatives, such as biodiesel, methanol, butanol and hydrogen, Kaplan said
I know you're expecting me to reverse my position and say, "Oh, Bush called for it? Well, that's okay, then!"

But it's not going to happen. Ethanol production results in a net loss of energy. It's bad from an energy standpoint, and it's bad from an environmental standpoint.
 
What is undeniable is that you are blaming a problem that Conservatives created on the Liberals.

President Bush | Ethanol | Promote Use

A call for less gasoline consumption
Bush is also calling for Americans to slash gasoline consumption by up to 20 percent by 2017.
Bush envisions the goal being achieved primarily through a sharp escalation in the amount of ethanol and other alternative fuels that the federal government mandates must be produced. The rest would come from raising fuel economy standards for passenger cars, Joel Kaplan, White House deputy chief of staff, said in advance of Bush's Tuesday night speech to a joint session of Congress.

The president is proposing to set the amount of ethanol and other alternative fuels to be blended into the fuel supply at 35 billion gallons by 2017, up from 7.5 billion gallons in 2012. He also wants to expand the standard to include not just ethanol but a wide range of oil alternatives, such as biodiesel, methanol, butanol and hydrogen, Kaplan said
I know you're expecting me to reverse my position and say, "Oh, Bush called for it? Well, that's okay, then!"

But it's not going to happen. Ethanol production results in a net loss of energy. It's bad from an energy standpoint, and it's bad from an environmental standpoint.

Now I happen to agree with you on all of your points. Food crops never should be used for fuel. It is a morality issue.

However, there are many ways to produce either ethonol or a diesel substitute using cellulose or other waste products. That is the direction that we should be going.
 

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