This paper discusses the "dead zone" in the Gulf of Mexico, an area of hypoxic ocean waters meaning that the area is oxygen-deficient and unable to support marine life.
This paper explains that, now roughly the size of the state of New Jersey, the Gulf of Mexico dead zone was first discovered in the early 1970s when the phenomenon occurred only once every two or three years; however, due to an increase in environmental pollutants, the dead zone currently occurs every summer in Gulf waters. The author points out that hypoxia occurs when pollutant-ridden water from the Mississippi River flows into the Gulf of Mexico, which carry an excess of nutrients, especially nitrogen, streams into the salt water, thus local algal populations thrive killing off the fish. The paper stressed that the dead zone in the Gulf affects not only marine life but also human welfare because fishing and farming industries are the most directly and adversely affected by hypoxia. The effects of the Gulf dead zone are far-reaching. For example, the algal blooms cause shellfish poisoning, which can cause permanent memory loss. The dead zone is also an aesthetic problem, including the sight of millions of dead fish. Elizabeth Carlisle (2000) notes that hypoxia in the Gulf causes food chain alterations, loss of biodiversity, and high aquatic species mortality." The consequences are therefore long-term and affect not only the local ecosystem, but ecosystems across the globe." https://studymoose.com/neo-malthusian-theory-essay
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
August 2017
Categories |