Coastal Command By Megan Scudellari, The Scientist1 September 2013In 2005, Hurricane Katrina ripped parts of the roof off the research building of the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium (LUMCON), situated 85 miles southwest of New Orleans in the heart of Mississippi River Delta wetlands. One month later, Hurricane Rita poured water into the facility, causing major [...]

Real-Time Monitoring Pays Off for Tracking Nitrate Pulse in Mississippi River Basin to the Gulf of Mexico By sciencedaily.com22 August 2013 This graph shows the pulsing of the nitrate concentration of the Misssissippi River at Baton Rouge, LA, along with the streamflow at the same point, from November 2011 to August 2013. Excessive springtime nitrate [...]

Scientists find sizable dead zone, but its smaller than they predicted By Eric Berger, The Houston Chronicle29 July 2013There’s a large dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico this summer, but not one nearly so large as scientists predicted about six weeks ago. Back in June federally funded scientists predicted a dead zone that would cover between 7,286 [...]

Above-average low-oxygen Dead Zone covers 5,840 miles along Louisiana coast By Mark Schleifstein, NOLA.com; The Times-Picayune29 July 2013  Researchers found an above-average 5,840 square mile area with oxygen levels below 2 parts per million along Louisiana's coast, well above the 2,889 square miles measured in 2012, and above the five-year average.(Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium; Louisiana [...]

Gulfs dead zone is smaller than predicted, but still a large problem By Amy Would, The Advocate31 July 2013 Measurements and scientific research aside, mud-dwelling crabs and eels swimming at the water’s surface in an attempt to get air was a good indication there are oxygen problems down below in the Gulf of Mexico. That’s [...]

Smaller-Than-Expected Gulf Dead Zone Is Still Massive By Douglas Main, AccuWeather.com5 August 2013The dead zone that has formed in the Gulf of Mexico this summer is smaller than predicted, but is still larger than average, spanning an area roughly the size of Connecticut. This zone, an area without oxygen and almost completely devoid of life [...]

Why This Year's Gulf Dead Zone Is Twice As Big As Last Year's By Tom Philpott, Mother Jones14 August 2013 Dead Sea scrolls: In the red part, "habitats that would normally be teeming with life become, essentially, biological deserts," NOAA says. NOAA.  First, the good news: The annual "dead zone" that smothers much of the northern Gulf [...]

Crowd favors lawsuit to regulate runoff By Joel Aschbrenner, Des Moines Register7 August 2013  Bill Stowe, CEO of Des Moines Water Works, speaks to a crowd of more than 100 at gathered Tuesday to advocate for clean water. / Joel Aschbrenner/The Register   The idea of filing a lawsuit seeking federal regulators to establish limits [...]

South Dakotans learn about hypoxia, land losses on Louisiana trip By AmericanNews.com2 August 2013This is a combination of a guest blog from Roslyn farmer and South Dakota Corn Grower member Ryan Wagner following a recent trip to the southern tip of Louisiana  Hypoxia by definition is an absence or lack of oxygen, and the Gulf [...]

Dead zone is an annual shame By Editorial, The Courier29 July 2013 Every summer, the Gulf of Mexico researchers who focus on the dead zone spend a lot of time and energy measuring and documenting the phenomenon. This summer, they found another huge area of oxygen-depleted water — 5,840 square miles. For comparison’s sake, that [...]