Gulf of Mexico Dead Zone Smaller Than Expected

Good news doesn’t come as often as we’d like nowadays, so it’s nice to be able to report that this year’s Gulf of Mexico dead zone isn’t nearly as large as experts thought it would be. NOAA-sponsored forecast models predicted that it would be bigger than usual at 7,000 – 8,000 square miles, but the actual size is about 3,000 square miles.

However, the change in square miles doesn’t mean it’s any less severe than usual. In fact, it’s worse. This year’s dead zone is “unusually thick”, reaching from the ocean floor almost to the surface of the water. And the smaller size doesn’t mean that the amount of pesticide-laden runoff that causes the dead zone in the first place has decreased.

From PhysOrg, via Treehugger:

“The results of the 2009 cruise at first glance are hopeful, but the smaller than expected area of hypoxia appears to be related to short-term weather patterns before measurements were taken, not a reduction in the underlying cause, excessive nutrient runoff.” said Robert Magnien, PhD., director of NOAA’s Center for Sponsored Coastal Ocean Research. “The smaller area measured by this one cruise, therefore, does not represent a trend and in no way diminishes the need for a harder look at efforts to reduce nutrient runoff.”

The average size of the dead zone over the past five years, including this cruise, is now 6,000 square miles. The interagency Gulf of Mexico/Mississippi River Watershed Nutrient Task Force has a goal to reduce or make significant progress toward reducing this dead zone average to 2,000 square miles or less by 2015. The Task Force uses a five year average due to relatively high interannual variability.

The solution is reducing fertilizer use on farms along the Mississippi River. When too much fertilizer is applied, the excess runs off into the river and is carried all the way to the Gulf, depriving the waters of oxygen and making them unlivable for most marine life. Treehugger reports that one proposed solution is crop biodiversity, which would cut down on the need for chemicals on farms.

Link [Phys Org] via [Treehugger]
Photo credit: NOAA

This Year’s Gulf of Mexico Dead Zone Might be Bigger than Ever

Every summer, a vast, oxygen-deprived ‘dead zone’ appears in the Gulf of Mexico, courtesy of runoff from Midwestern farms that travels down the Mississippi River. But this year, scientists say, that dead zone could be bigger than ever.

Farmland runoff containing fertilizers and livestock waste flood the Gulf with nitrogen and phosphorous, which fuel explosive algae growth. When that algae dies and sinks to the sea floor, bacteria consume vast amounts of oxygen while eating the decomposing organic matter. That creates a ‘hypoxic’ zone where very few sea creatures can survive.

From Science Daily:

University of Michigan aquatic ecologist Donald Scavia and his colleagues say this year’s Gulf of Mexico “dead zone” could be one of the largest on record, continuing a decades-long trend that threatens the health of a half-billion-dollar fishery.

The scientists’ latest forecast, released June 18, calls for a Gulf dead zone of between 7,450 and 8,456 square miles—an area about the size of New Jersey.

“The growth of these dead zones is an ecological time bomb,” said Scavia, a professor at the U-M School of Natural Resources and Environment and director of the U-M Graham Environmental Sustainability Institute.

“Without determined local, regional and national efforts to control them, we are putting major fisheries at risk,” said Scavia, who also produces annual dead-zone forecasts for the Chesapeake Bay.

It’s possible that this year’s dead zone will be roughly the same size as last year’s, but that will still mean that the five largest dead zones on record have occurred since 2001, a clear sign that the problem is getting much worse. The dead zone’s official size will be announced following an NOAA-supported monitoring survey on July 18th – 26th.

Link [Science Daily]
Photo credit: NASA

Cow Crap from Illinois Caused Jersey-Sized Dead Zone in Gulf

The Mississippi has become a deadly river of shit and fertilizer, carrying the chemicals and waste from farms along its banks down into the Gulf of Mexico, where they have caused a giant oxygen-deprived ‘hypoxic zone’.  Commonly known as a ‘dead zone’, this swath of the gulf is unable to support life and its size is increasing by the day.

Now, researchers say they’ve identified where some of regions responsible for releasing the most phosphorous and nitrogen into the Mississippi River basin.

From GreenBiz.com:

The report, available at http://water.usgs.gov, follows on an earlier report that narrowed the culprits for 70 percent of the pollution leading to the dead zone to nine states: Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, Missouri, Arkansas, Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio and Mississippi.

From the report:

Almost all of the top 150 watersheds are in the Corn Belt or near the Mississippi River, with the highest yields of TN [total nitrogen] being in northern Illinois and central Indiana and highest yields of TP [total phosphorus] being from watersheds along the Mississippi River, and in northern Kentucky, and distributed through Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana. [...] Therefore, if one were interested in placing management efforts only in a specified number of the highest contributing watersheds, the watersheds to place efforts could be readily identified.

Last year, the NOAA predicted that the dead zone will increase to 8,800 miles – about the size of New Jersey.  [Insert joke about shit and New Jersey here. I'm too lazy.]

Now that the causes have been pinpointed, it’s time for the government to start addressing this problem. States need to start focusing their pollution-reduction efforts to prevent the dead zone from killing even more sea life.

GreenBiz.com reports that the EPA has announced three grants to Iowa State University researchers that would focus on reducing pollution runoff into the Mississippi River – it’s a start.

Link [GreenBiz.com]
Photo credit: Flickr user dipfan

7 Environmental Problems That Are Worse Than We Thought

With as much attention as the environment has been getting lately, you’d think that we’d be further along in our fight to preserve the world’s species, resources and the beautiful diversity of nature. Unfortunately, things aren’t nearly that rosy. In fact, many of the environmental problems that have received the most public attention are even worse than we thought – from destruction in the rain forest to melting glaciers in the Arctic. We’ve got a lot of work to do.

7. Mammal Extinction

Image via National Wildlife Federation

One in four mammals is threatened with extinction. That’s 25%, a huge number that will totally change the ecology of every corner of the earth. We could see thousands of species die out in our lifetime, and the rate of habitat loss and hunting in crucial areas like Southeast Asia, Central Africa and Central and South America is growing so rapidly, these animals barely have a chance.

If you think the extinction of an animal like the beautiful Iberian Lynx is no big deal, and wouldn’t have that much of an effect on the planet, think again. Not only would we be losing – mostly due to our own disregard for our surroundings – so much of the awe-inspiring diversity of nature, mass extinctions like this would cause a serious imbalance in the world’s food chain. When a predator disappears, the prey will multiply. When prey dies out, the predator will see its ranks decrease as well. Many people fail to realize just how interconnected all species on this planet really are.

6. The Ocean Dead Zones

Image via NASA

In oceans around the world, there are eerie areas that are devoid of nearly all life. These ‘dead zones’ are characterized by a lack of oxygen, and they’re caused by excess nitrogen from farm fertilizers, emissions from vehicles and factories, and sewage. The number of dead zones has been growing fast – since the 1960’s, the number of dead zones has doubled every 10 years. They range in size from under a square mile to 45,000 square miles, and the most infamous one of all is in the Gulf of Mexico, a product of toxic sludge that flows down the Mississippi from farms in the Midwest. These ‘hypoxic’ zones now cover an area roughly the size of Oregon.

Spanish researches recently found that many species die off at oxygen levels well above the current definition of ‘uninhabitable’, suggesting that the extent of dead zones in coastal areas that support fishing is much worse than previously thought. Robert Diaz, a Virginia Institute of Marine Science biologist, said “Everything is pointing towards a more desperate situation in all aquatic systems, freshwater and marine. That’s pretty clear. People should be worried, all over the world.”

As if that weren’t bad enough, global warming will likely aggravate the problem. A rise in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will change rainfall patterns, which could create an increase in runoff from rivers into the seas in many areas.

5. Collapsing Fish Stock

Image via Pew Environment Group

Millions of people across the world depend upon fish as a major staple in their diet. As such, commercial fishermen have been pulling such a huge quantity of fish from the oceans that we’re heading toward a global collapse of all species currently fished – possibly as soon as the year 2048. Like large-scale mammal extinction, the collapse of fish species would have a major impact on the world’s ecosystems.

It’s not too late – yet – if overfishing and other threats to fish populations are reduced as soon as possible. Marine systems are still biologically diverse, but catastrophic loss of fish species is close at hand. 29 percent of species have been fished so heavily or have been so affected by pollution that they’re down to 10 percent of their previous population levels. If we continue the way we are fishing today, there will be a 100 percent collapse by mid-century, so we’ve got to turn this around fast.

4. Destruction of the Rain Forest

Image via Encyclopedia Britannica

‘Saving the rain forest’ has been at the forefront of the environmental movement for decades, yet here we are facing huge losses in the Amazon all the same. You might have thought that, with all the attention the rain forest has gotten, it wouldn’t need so much saving anymore – but unfortunately, global warming and deforestation mean that half of the Amazon rain forest will likely be destroyed or severely damaged by 2030.

The World Wildlife Fund concluded this summer that agriculture, drought, fire, logging and livestock ranching will cause major damage to 55 percent of the Amazon rain forest in the next 22 years. Another 4 percent will see damage due to reduced rainfall, courtesy of global warming. These factors will destroy up to 80 percent of the rain forest’s wildlife. Losing 60 percent of the rain forest would accelerate global warming and affect rainfall in places as far away as India. Massive destruction to the rain forest would have a domino effect on the rest of the world.

The WWF says that the ‘point of no return’, from which recovery will be impossible, is only 15 to 25 years away.

3. Polar Sea Ice Loss

Image via National Snow and Ice Data Center

Polar sea ice is melting at an unprecedented rate, and it’s not showing any signs of slowing down. It’s perhaps the most dramatic, startling visual evidence of global warming, and it’s got scientists rushing to figure out just how big of an effect the melting is going to have on the rest of the world.

British researchers said last week that the thickness of sea ice in the Arctic decreased dramatically last winter for the first time since records began in the early 1990s. The research showed a significant loss in thickness on the northern ice cap after the record loss of ice during the summer of 2007.

Scientific American warns that “human fingerprints have been detected” on both the Arctic and Antarctic regions. Antarctica had previously appeared to be the only continent on the planet where humanity’s impact on climate change hadn’t been observed. The collapse of the Larsen B and Wilkins ice shelves in the Antarctic Peninsula shows just how fast the region is warming.

2. CO2 Levels in the Atmosphere

Image via Visible Earth

The aforementioned polar sea ice loss is yet another sinister sign of carbon dioxide levels building up in the atmosphere – the main force behind global warming. Greenhouse gas emissions caused by our modern way of life – vehicles, power plants, factories, giant livestock farms – will bring devastating climate change within decades if they stay at today’s levels.

Average temperatures could increase by as much as 12 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of the century if emissions continue to rise, a figure that would easily make the world virtually uninhabitable for humans. A global temperature rise of just 7.2 degrees Fahrenheit would cause a catastrophic domino effect, bringing weather extremes that would result in food and water shortages and destructive floods.

The most recent report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change represents “the final nail in the coffin” of climate change denial, representing the most authoritative picture to date that global warming is caused by human activity. According to the panel, we must make a swift and significant switch to clean, efficient and renewable energy technologies in order to prevent the worst-case scenario.

1. Population Explosion

Image via Wikimedia Commons

Whether we like to admit it or not, our very own rapidly multiplying presence on this planet is the biggest environmental problem there is, and it’s getting bigger by the minute. We voraciously consume resources, pollute the air and water, tear down natural habitats, introduce species into areas where they don’t belong and destroy ecosystems to the point of causing millions of species to become endangered and, all too often, go extinct.

It took nearly all of human history – from the first days of man on earth until the early 1800’s – to reach a global population of 1 billion. In just 200 years, we’ve managed to reach 6.5 billion. That means the population has grown more since 1950 than in the previous four million years. We’re adding roughly 74 million people to the planet every year, a scary figure that will probably continue to increase. All of those mouths will need to be fed. All of those bodies will need clean water and a place to sleep. All of the new communities created to house those people will continue to encroach upon the natural world.

All seven environmental problems detailed above are very serious, and we’ve got to start treating them that way. We may not have easy solutions, but the fact is, we simply can’t continue living our lives as if everything is peachy. These problems aren’t going to magically solve themselves. We should have begun acting generations ago, but we can’t go back in time, and that means we have to step up our efforts. If we want to keep this planet a healthy place for humans to live – for our grandchildren to enjoy – it’s time to buckle down and do everything in our power to reverse the damage we’ve done.

Ocean Dead Zones Might be Worse Than Originally Thought

Well, you didn’t think things were actually better than we initially thought, did you? Frighteningly, dead zones in oceans around the world – which are oxygen-starved areas that can’t support most life – are greater than originally thought in coastal areas that support fishing industries. More than 400 dead zones have formed along continental coastlines since the mid-20th century.  They occur when fertilizer pollution causes algal blooms, whose decomposition feeds oxygen-consuming bacteria.

From Wired Science:

These so-called hypoxic regions now cover an area roughly equivalent in size to Oregon. Compared to Earth’s total ocean area, that’s relatively small, but they’re grouped in places critical to commercial fishing. They’re also spreading, in both size and frequency: Since the 1960s, the number of hypoxic areas has doubled every 10 years.

And as significant as the problem is, it’s based on what may be outdated, overly permissive standards. The new study is a review of nearly 900 studies of 206 ocean floor-dwelling species, and suggests that the level of oxygen considered hypoxic needs to be raised.

“These results imply that the number and area of coastal ecosystems affected by hypoxia and the future extent of hypoxia impacts on marine life have been generally underestimated,” write Carlos Duarte and Raquel Vaquer-Sunyer of the Mediterranean Institute for Advanced Studies. The paper was published yesterday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Duarte and Vaquer-Sunyer believe that we need to replace the outdated oxygen baseline, set in 1983, to 4.6 milligrams per liter, if not higher, in order to preserve the biodiversity of bottom-dwellers.  This benchmark would probably double the number of hypoxic zones, or at least increase it by 100.

Robert Diaz, a Virginia Institute of Marine Science biologist who has been studying dead zones since 1995, says “Everything is pointing towards a more desperate situation in all aquatic systems, freshwater and marine.  That’s pretty clear.  People should be worried, all over the world.”

We sure have managed to mess things up, haven’t we?

Link [Wired Science]

Giant Dead Zone in Gulf of Mexico to Grow Larger After Midwest Floods

Everything is fine, pay no attention to the GIANT DEAD ZONE in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico. At least, that’s the stance the government seems to be taking. The EPA has released a ‘plan of action’ to tackle the problem, but no funds have been allocated to the inevitably very expensive project and a tangle of federal agencies involved in the plan ensures that they’ll all just be running around bumping into each other like dumbasses while nothing gets done.

The dead zone in the Gulf has been caused by chemical-laden runoff from farms in the Midwest, which flows down the Mississippi and pours millions of tons of nitrogen, phosphorous and other fertilizer into the Gulf of Mexico. What results is a ‘hypoxic event’, where the fertilizers cause algae to bloom out of control and suck all of the oxygen out of the surrounding waters, causing the water to become barren, killing sea life in the area.

The dead zone is getting ever-larger and recent flooding in the Midwest promises that it will be much worse this year. While this should be a major priority for the government, TIME Magazine reports,

A 2007 report by the National Research Council called for more aggressive leadership by the EPA to coordinate and oversee state activities along the Mississippi, but the agency doesn’t seem ready or able to seize that role. The plan itself reports that “resources are insufficient to gain the goals” of the task force. “We seem to be going in the opposite direction,” says Donald Scavia, a professor of natural resources and the environment at the University of Michigan. “We don’t seem committed to fixing the problem.”

Not that it’s an easy one to fix. Most of the nutrient pollution that ends up in the Gulf comes from the hundreds of thousands of farms in the Midwest. The only sure way to shrink the dead zone is to reduce the amount of fertilizer running off those farms. But thanks in part to the push for corn-based ethanol and the skyrocketing price of food crops, U.S. farmers are planting more acres for corn than they have since World War II — including 15 million more acres last year than in 2006. Although there are measures farmers can take to limit fertilizer runoff, those changes are expensive, and there’s little federal funding to support such conservation. The just-released action plan relies mostly on voluntary activities. “We need Congress to act as if this is going to get done,” says Doug Daigle, a member of the task force. “The state governments will contribute, but this has to be initiated by the Federal Government.”

The dead zone in the gulf is one of 150 in the world. Clearly, we as a nation need to change our agricultural policies, which have allowed this problem to occur in the first place. Hopefully, experts will find some way to alleviate the problem before it wipes out all life in the beautiful Gulf of Mexico.

Link [TIME Magazine]
Photo credit: Flickr user blmurch