What is hypoxia?
Hypoxia, or low oxygen, is an environmental phenomenon where the concentration of dissolved oxygen in the water column decreases to a level that can no longer support living aquatic organisms. Hypoxic areas, or “Dead Zones,” have increased in duration and frequency across our planet’s oceans since first being noted in the 1970s.
The largest hypoxic zone currently affecting the United States, and the second largest hypoxic zone worldwide, is the northern Gulf of Mexico adjacent to the Mississippi River.
Gulf hypoxia in the news:
CBS This Morning – Massive dead zone in Gulf of Mexico
"Largest" dead zone recorded in U.S. threatens marine life Air Date: 08/16/17 The largest dead zone ever recorded in the U.S. has appeared in the Gulf of Mexico. It is primarily caused by fertilizer and [...]
Gulf of Mexico dead zone is going in the wrong direction: Editorial
By The Times-Picayune Editorial Board August 6, 2017 Sixteen years after voluntary limits on fertilizer went into effect, the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico this year is the largest since scientists began measuring it in [...]
Our Views: Setting a ‘dead zone’ record in Gulf
Advocate Editorial August 5, 2017 Much of Louisiana was built by the sediments brought down over millennia by the great Mississippi River, and it continues today to generate wealth in this country and state as [...]
The Gulf of Mexico dead zone is larger than ever. Here’s what to do about it.
By Jenna Gallegos | The Washington Post August 4, 2017 Scientists just measured the largest dead zone ever recorded for the Gulf of Mexico, a whopping 8,776 square miles, massive enough to cover all of New Jersey. And [...]
The biggest ever “dead zone” in the Gulf of Mexico is the size of New Jersey
By Ruairi Arrieta-Kenna | Vox August 3, 2017 The man-made problem is an environmental disaster and an economic threat. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced Wednesdaythat this year’s “dead zone” in the Gulf of [...]
Gulf of Mexico Dead Zone in Need of Bold New Approaches
Louisiana State University Media Center August 2, 2017 Shrinking the annual Gulf of Mexico Dead Zone down to the size of Delaware will require a 59 percent reduction in the amount of nitrogen runoff that [...]
New Jersey-Size ‘Dead Zone’ Is Largest Ever in Gulf of Mexico
By Casey Smith | National Geographic August 2, 2017 Scientists report the latest data from the Upper Gulf of Mexico, and the results aren’t good. This image of the Gulf of Mexico in the [...]