Water is something we cannot live without. Oceans are large bodies of water. We rely on them for many things. We need to better understand dead zones and their impacts on ecosystems as well as people. Dead zones are expanding, which decreases the water quality and can even be harmful to the economy. Another problem we face with oceanic dead zones is eutrophication. What are dead zones? What is eutrophication? What is their correlation to each other and why are they important? Where are the most notable dead zones found?
First I want to look at what dead zones and eutrophication are. A dead zone is a common name for a hypoxic area of water. It is a place where there is limited oxygen. Eutrophic means “well-nourished”. In simple …show more content…
A prime example is the infamous Gulf of Mexico hypoxic area, not far from where the Mississippi River, which drains farms up and down the Midwest, lets out. The 8,500 square mile area has claimed the number two spot for the largest dead zones in the world. “"More than 212,000 metric tons [235,000 tons] of food is lost to hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico," says marine biologist Robert Diaz of The College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Va., who surveyed the dead zones along with marine ecologist Rutger Rosenberg of the University of Gothenburg in Sweden. "That's enough to feed 75 percent of the average brown shrimp harvest from the Louisiana gulf” (Biello). The low quality of the water has led to many problems for the ocean life including lack of spawning and low egg counts. “Dead zones occur in many areas of the country, particularly along the East Coast, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Great Lakes, but there is no part of the country or the world that is immune”(What is a Dead Zone). Other dead zones in the U.S. can be found off the coasts of Virginia and
First I want to look at what dead zones and eutrophication are. A dead zone is a common name for a hypoxic area of water. It is a place where there is limited oxygen. Eutrophic means “well-nourished”. In simple …show more content…
A prime example is the infamous Gulf of Mexico hypoxic area, not far from where the Mississippi River, which drains farms up and down the Midwest, lets out. The 8,500 square mile area has claimed the number two spot for the largest dead zones in the world. “"More than 212,000 metric tons [235,000 tons] of food is lost to hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico," says marine biologist Robert Diaz of The College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Va., who surveyed the dead zones along with marine ecologist Rutger Rosenberg of the University of Gothenburg in Sweden. "That's enough to feed 75 percent of the average brown shrimp harvest from the Louisiana gulf” (Biello). The low quality of the water has led to many problems for the ocean life including lack of spawning and low egg counts. “Dead zones occur in many areas of the country, particularly along the East Coast, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Great Lakes, but there is no part of the country or the world that is immune”(What is a Dead Zone). Other dead zones in the U.S. can be found off the coasts of Virginia and