Latest Dead zone Stories
COLLEGE STATION, Texas, Aug. 23, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The worst drought to hit the United States in at least 50 years does have one benefit: it has created the smallest "dead zone" in the Gulf of Mexico in years, says a Texas A&M University researcher who has just returned from gulf waters. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20120502/DC99584LOGO) Oceanography professor Steve DiMarco, one of the world's leading authorities on the dead zone, says he and other...
Professor Robert Diaz of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science is a co-editor of “Valuing the Ocean” a major new study by an international team of scientists and economists that attempts to measure the ocean’s monetary value and to tally the costs and savings associated with human decisions affecting ocean health. The study estimates that if human impacts on the ocean continue unabated, declines in ocean health and services will cost the global economy $428 billion per year by...
Data from end of the last Ice Age confirm effects of climate change on oceans The first comprehensive study of changes in the oxygenation of oceans at the end of the last Ice Age (between about 10 to 20,000 years ago) has implications for the future of our oceans under global warming. The study, which was co-authored by Eric Galbraith, of McGill's Department of Earth & Planetary Sciences, looked at marine sediment and found that that the dissolved oxygen concentrations in large parts...
Study focuses on oxygen minimum zones in NE Atlantic and effects on pelagic species The science behind counting fish in the ocean to measure their abundance has never been simple. A new scientific paper in Nature Climate Change shows that expanding 'ocean dead zones' (areas of low oxygen) driven in part by climate change makes that science even more complex. Blue marlin, other billfish and tropical tuna are high energy fish that need large amounts of dissolved oxygen. Scientists from...
The Gulf of Mexico's "dead zone" is predicted to be the largest ever recorded due to extreme flooding of the Mississippi River this spring, according to a team of scientists working through the support of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The scientists, from the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium, Louisiana State University and the University of Michigan, based their forecast on Mississippi River nutrient inputs compiled annually by the US Geological Survey...
Large hypoxic zones low in oxygen long have been thought to have negative influences on aquatic life, but a Purdue University study shows that while these so-called dead zones have an adverse affect, not all species are impacted equally.Tomas Höök, an assistant professor of forestry and natural resources, and former Purdue postdoctoral researcher Kristen Arend used output from a model to estimate how much dissolved oxygen was present in Lake Erie's hypoxic zone each day from 1987 to...
Persistent lack of oxygen in Earth's oceans affected animal evolutionThe oceans became oxygen-rich as they are today about 600 million years ago, during Earth's Late Ediacaran Period. Before that, most scientists believed until recently, the ancient oceans were relatively oxygen-poor for the preceding four billion years.Now biogeochemists at the University of California-Riverside (UCR) have found evidence that the oceans went back to being "anoxic," or oxygen-poor, around 499...
Australian marine scientists have expressed disquiet over the continued worldwide spread of large, dead zones in the ocean.Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg and Professor Mark McCormick of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies have recently published scientific articles which raise concern about the impact of large areas of ocean emerging which are so low in oxygen that fish and other sea life cannot survive.Hundreds of dead zones are being reported around the world in areas that...
Understanding Missouri River's Sediment dynamics key to protecting endangered species, setting water quality standards, says new reportA new report from the National Research Council says that more organized and systematic procedures for gathering and evaluating data on Missouri River sediment are required to improve decisions and better manage the river's ecosystem, including protecting endangered species and developing water quality standards. In addition, the report finds that the U.S....
The environmental impact of millions of gallons of oil still in the Gulf of Mexico from the Deepwater Horizon incident may depend on microscopic helpers: Bacteria that consume oil and other hydrocarbons and could break down the spilled crude, making it disappear. That's the topic of an article in the current issue of Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN), ACS' weekly newsmagazine. It points out that the oil-eating bacteria are beneficial in helping to clear away the oil. Their...
