One World Essay: Dead Zone in the Gulf of Mexico
Scientific Reasoning:
The dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico is a human problem, like most other disasters. What this means is that once the place thrived and was ecologically balanced, but we tipped the balance slightly and wrecked havoc upon the environment. It has been noted to occur since the 1950’s and is ongoing. The reason that this dead zone occurs is because of a phenomenon known as eutrophication. Eutrophication is when there is an excessive amount of nutrients in a body of water and it causes an abundance of plants to grow. In this case the nearby farms had been using nitrogen in their fertilizers. The nitrogen got carried into the ocean through rain and other forms of water. Nitrogen is an important aspect for plants to grow and a lack of it is normally what contains plants from growing in an excessive amount. Because farmers mainly use this, the dead zone has a considerable decrease in size in the winter season while it increases in size during the warm seasons. Eutrophication generally leads to another phenomenon know as hypoxia, which is the state of water when it is lacking oxygen. Having too much nitrogen leads to hypoxia, because there is a bloom in algae. Bacteria in the water then eat the algae and use all the oxygen in the process. Without oxygen in the water, a dead zone is formed, an area with little to no life. The dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico is around 6,000-7,000 square miles in size, but varies throughout seasons (source23879482371) (see Fig. 1).
Fig. 1 Size of Dead Zone
Environmental problems with this are that a huge marine ecosystem has been devastated. Hundreds upon thousands of marine life have been killed, along with the destruction...
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...come too big for anyone to do anything about it.
Solutions
So far the solutions that people and scientists have come up with are to make the farmers use fewer fertilizers, time when you use your fertilizers and control waste. Using fewer fertilizers and controlling waste are the most obvious solutions, as they would directly prevent nitrogen and nitrates from being in the water. They are the hardest to achieve though because the farmers need them to grow their plants. The other thing is to time when you use your fertilizers. This is so that you don’t add too much fertilizer in the rainy seasons because then the water will run down and go into the Gulf of Mexico.
Bibliography:
Bruckner, Monica. "The Gulf of Mexico Dead Zone." The Gulf of Mexico Dead Zone. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Nov. 2013. .
According to the USDA Economic Research Service, the most cost-effective solution would be to simply decrease the amount of nitrate entering the gulf by 1.2 million metric tons. According to calculations, this would not result in significant crop yields but would decrease the amount of hypoxia.
Nature designed Florida to be one large marine ecosystem. Florida is one big sand peninsula located below the 40th longitudinal North American line. Three bodies of salt water (Gulf of Mexico, Strait of Florida and Atlantic Ocean) surround three out of four directions of Florida. Man-made canals, natural lakes, rivers and estuaries are confined within the State of Florida’s physical boundaries. All of these form an interlocking system of waterways that impact the interconnected marine environment (marine ecosystem). All of Florida’s waterways are connected back to the surrounding bodies of water while passing through Florida’s sub-tropical and temperate zones and impact the delicate marine ecosystem balance. Man and nature are causing a negative impact to this region like never before. Hurricanes, lack of green initiatives, garbage, pollution and the stripping of natural resources for population growth are decimating Florida’s natural ecosystems.
Ethical issues in this case are the impact on tourism industry of Gulf of Mexico and its beaches, unemployment around area because of closure of business, wildlife and the environment destruction and concerned with human health and post incident trauma. It has been almost year but world is still recovering from the devastation of disastrous oil spill. It destroyed the environment and wildlife all over the place and its total impact is still unknown. Environmental impacts may be noticeable for years to come.
First the causes of the dead zone will be introduced. Large contributors of excessive nutrients will be discussed. There is not one source to blame the Chesapeake Bay dead zone is a large problem with many variables that effect each other. Next the pressure that is put on the bay and its organisms will be discussed. A picture of what you might find out in the dead zone will be painted. The reality of the rapidly declining organism populations will be understood. Third, the possible solutions will be explained. Since this is a multiple variable problem there are many potential solutions that may or may not work. Last the lack of action will be observed. There are many solutions that could bring the bay back to life but the cost and lack of effort fr...
Most people believe that one man-made natural disaster would teach us to be better, but we have learned that history repeats itself. The Exxon Valdez oil spill (in 1989) and the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, or BP oil spill, (in 2010) were both devastating oil spills that shocked the nation. The Exxon Valdez oil spill occurred due to a tanker grounding. The BP oil spill was caused by an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil platform. These two oil spills were both disasters and had greater effects in certain categories. In this essay, I will be comparing the cause of both oil spills, the damage/effect of both oil spills, and the cleanup of each oil spill.
The article indicates that the influences of oceans pollution that made by humans and caused by a phenomenon called “dead zones”. First of all, there is a great amount of plastic in the ocean which causes massive consequences for animals of the entire marine food web. On the other hand, “Dead zone” also affect Earth’s oceans. “Dead zones” can formed by many causes, such as natural causes, climate change, along human activities and industrial waste. These is a national problem and humans need to have some regulatory mechanisms. Therefore, it can helps the “dead zones” reduced. The author mentions that the US Environmental
The Chesapeake Bay is becoming a dead zone due to excessive amounts of nutrients. These nutrients feed phytoplankton which is a type of very small plant that floats. This phytoplankton in turn blocks sunlight needed by underwater grass that grows on the bed of the Chesapeake Bay. When phytoplankton die they sink to the bottom of the bay and decompose. This decomposition creates low levels of oxygen in bay. Low levels of oxygen mean that certain types of species can no longer survive in what is known as the dead zone. Populations are plummeting due to the excessive amount of nutrients, and if these nutrient levels are not reduced the dead zone will continue to grow larger.
Overall, the Gulf of Mexico dead zone is an area that should be taken very seriously. This is a part of the ocean that is drastically and undeniably affected directly by human activities. The economies surrounding the Gulf are very dependent on the resources they receive from it and would be devastated if economically-important species began dying off due to lack of oxygen. Although the dead zone varies in size from year to year, the area has increase exponentially ever since the birth of intensive farming practices involving nutrient-rich fertilizers. Thankfully, many efforts have been put forth to monitor and manage the dead zone. Revised farming practices along with greater environmental education for the general population with hopefully lead to a reduced risk of hypoxic conditions causing excess economic or ecological damage.
There is camera proof of pictures of clouds and proof from the U.S. Coastguard of reasons for accidents in the area. The area is a dangerous part of the ocean for those reasons, but there is nothing mysterious about it. Also, there is no proof of the remains of people, planes, and ships because the Gulf Stream carries them elsewhere, but they have not disappeared, they have just been moved and altered. It is impossible for anything to stay in the exact spot it landed in the ocean because of the constant movement in the water. There is no evidence of the remains of people, but there are several contributing factors to why people have crashed such as: the underwater topography, the current of the Gulf Stream, and methane gas hydrates. There are very deep trenches in that area and it is unlikely that ships there will be found. The current in that area is also extremely strong and can misplace evidence of ships
Harmfull Effects of Ocean dumping include animals in danger with trash in their habitat, as well as contamination of public waters.
Water pollution has had devastating effects on the environment, which include irreversible effects on the oceans ecosystem. People often underestimate the importance of the ocean. They don’t realize how much damage pollution has caused to the ocean and the thousands of creatures that inhabit it. Earth is a huge place, but resources are actually very limited and will not last forever unless there is a balance. We must protect the resources we have in order for them to last into the next generation.
On April 20, 2010, the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, located in the Gulf of Mexico, exploded, killing 11 workers and injuring 17. The oil rig sank a day and a half later. The spill was referred to as the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, BP oil spill, Gulf of Mexico oil spill, and BP oil disaster. It was first said that little oil had actually leaked into the ocean, but a little over a month later the estimate was 12,000-19,000 barrels of crude oil being leaked per day. Many attempts were made to stop the leak but all failed until they capped the leak on July 15, 2010, and on September 19 the federal government declared the well “effectively dead.”
...d out the leakage a year later. Another cause of the disaster is that government ignored the chance of tsunami. Scientists warned about the dangerousness of tsunami, and advised them to build more protection to tsunami threatening. However, the government did not consider the advise (IAEA, 2011)
Farmers apply nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus, manure, and potassium in the form of fertilizers to produce a better product for the consumers. When these sources exceed the plants needs or if these nutrients are applied before a heavy rain then the opportunity for these excess to wash into aquatic ecosystems exists.
International Aral Sea Rehabilitation Fund web site. http://ifas-almaty.kz/ENG/Consequences.html 5.