Nitrogen Fertilizer: Agricultural Breakthrough--And Environmental Bane By Sarah SimpsonMarch 20, 2009; Scientific Americanhttp://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=nitrogen-fertilizer-anniversary A new report citing drawbacks of the corn ethanol craze casts a pall over the centennial of a Nobel Prize-winning discovery that transformed global food production   100 years of green: Has the discovery of nitrogen fertilizer been fruitful in the long [...]

Top Paper in Environmental Science: Leaving a legacy of dead zones By Erika EngelhauptMarch 10, 2009; Environmental Science and Technology Environmental Newshttp://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/es900418d Copyright © 2009 American Chemical Society “Gulf of Mexico Hypoxia: Alternate States and a Legacy” by R. Eugene Turner and Dubravko Justic, Louisiana State University; and Nancy N. Rabalais, Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium, [...]

ES&Ts Best Papers of 2008 By Jerald L. SchnoorMarch 4, 2009; Environmental Science and Technologyhttp://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/es9003729?cookieSet=1 In 2008, ES&T published more than 1300 papers on a wide range of topics. But which papers were the top papers, the best of the year? This year, our associate editors nominated papers that they felt were of the highest [...]

Diaz contributes to Ocean in Google Earth By David MalmquistFebruary 10, 2009; www.vims.eduhttp://www.vims.edu/newsandevents/topstories/diaz_google_earth.php  The newest version of Google Earth contains data on marine "dead zones" contributed by Professor Robert Diaz of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science. Research by Diaz and Swedish collaborator Rutger Rosenberg shows that the number of dead zones—areas of seafloor with [...]

Stamford will receive money for nitrogen reduction By Magdalene Perez02/16/2009; The Advocate, Norwalk, CThttp://www.stamfordadvocate.com/norwalkadvocate/news/ci_11717723 STAMFORD -- The city's wastewater authority earned a record $939,510 in nitrogen credits for 2008 under the state's credit trading program. The program requires sewage treatment facilities to buy or sell credits based on how effective they are at removing nitrogen [...]

Scientists Warn of Persistent 'Dead Zones' in Bay, Elsewhere By Kari LydersenFebruary 17, 2009; Washington Posthttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/16/AR2009021601150.html CHICAGO -- Healing low-oxygen aquatic "dead zones" in the Chesapeake Bay and hundreds of other spots worldwide will be trickier than previously imagined, leading scientists on the issue said Sunday. That's because the low oxygen levels that make it [...]

Falling crop diversity leads to dead zone By Jordan BlumFeb 12, 2009; 2theadvocate.comhttp://www.2theadvocate.com/news/39479202.html The dwindling amount of agricultural diversity along the Mississippi River basin is significantly contributing to the Gulf of Mexico’s “dead zone” off Louisiana’s coast, according to a new LSU-led report.The study started as an LSU doctoral dissertation and ended up as an [...]

Midwest Water Managers Travel to the Gulf of Mexico By LUMCON e-NewsletterJanuary 2009http://www.lumcon.edu/Information/news/default.asp?XMLFilename=200901090037.xml Midwest Water Managers Travel to the Gulf of Mexico Water quality managers from several midwestern states and regional offices of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency gathered in Cocodrie at LUMCON (Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium) for a first-hand look at what causes the [...]

State seeks more wetlands to fight pollution runoff By Philip BrasherFebruary 8, 2009; Des Moines Registerhttp://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2009902080334 Adel, Ia. - State agriculture officials think they have the solution to the pollution problems caused by water that drains off the state's farms: Drain the water faster.Shallow ponds like the one created with federal money on a Dallas [...]

From state mines to gulf dead zone: the trail of Florida phosphate By Craig PittmanFebruary 2, 2009; St. Petersburg Timeshttp://www.tampabay.com/news/environment/water/article972491.ece For a good example of the law of unintended consequences, look no further than the nationwide push to promote ethanol. Ten years ago, federal officials became concerned that a common gasoline additive called MTBE, which [...]