9 states deemed biggest dead zone contributors By Bruce AlpertTimes-Picayune; 30 January 2008http://www.nola.com/timespic/stories/index.ssf?/base/news-2/120167404552400.xml&coll=1They produce bulk of nutrient runoff  WASHINGTON -- Increasing pressure on federal regulators to impose mandatory reductions in agricultural runoff, a new government report says that nine states in the Mississippi River Basin contribute most of the nutrients in the northern Gulf of [...]

Media Advisory: Agriculture Practices in 9 States Contribute Majority of Excessive Nutrients to Northern Gulf of Mexico By U.S. Geological Survey1/24/2008  http://www.usgs.gov/newsroom/article.asp?ID=1859 Released: 1/24/2008 12:34:15 PM Contact Information:U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological SurveyOffice of Communication119 National CenterReston, VA 20192 Rich Alexander Phone: 703-648-6869 Jennifer LaVista Phone: 703-648-4432 Editor's note: This story is of particular interest [...]

Mississippi water flows see increase By Amy WoldBaton Rouge Advocate; January 27, 2008http://www.2theadvocate.com/news/14459507.html Farming practices since ’50s found responsible for trend Since the mid-1950s, changes in farming practices in the Mississippi River basin helped put more water and more carbon into the Mississippi River, a trend that continues today, according to a science article published [...]

Turn tide on Florida pollution By Sally Swartz, Editorial WriterPalm Beach Post; January 23, 2008http://www.palmbeachpost.com/search/content/opinion/epaper/2008/01/23/a20a_swartzcol_0123.html Red tide makes people cough and sneeze, and kills fish, dolphins and manatees. Once rare on the Florida's east coast, it appeared again during the holidays, for the third time since 2002. The killer tide may have drifted south from [...]

EDITORIAL: On our teamTimes-Picayune; January 8, 2008http://www.nola.com/timespic/stories/index.ssf?/base/news-4/1199773215152710.xml&coll=1 Louisianians understand how vital wetlands are: They serve as a buffer against storm surge and are nurseries for marine life and habitat for waterfowl. The loss of coastal wetlands is a crisis for this state. But Louisiana's environmental well-being also depends on wetlands far outside its boundaries -- [...]

Grass Makes Better Ethanol than Corn By David BielloScientific American; January 8, 2008http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=grass-makes-better-ethanol-than-corn Midwestern farms prove switchgrass could be the right crop for producing ethanol to replace gasoline Farmers in Nebraska and the Dakotas brought the U.S. closer to becoming a biofuel economy, planting huge tracts of land for the first time with switchgrass—a native [...]

Dead Serious By Sarah C. WilliamsSCIENCE NEWS Online; Week of Dec. 22, 2007; Vol. 172, No. 25/26 , p. 395 http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20071222/bob10.asp Experts worry about lack of progress in efforts to reduce lifeless zone in the Gulf of Mexico The water that tumbles out of the Mississippi River into the salty Gulf of Mexico has traveled [...]

400-Plus Coastal Zones Are Dying By Dan ShapleyThe Daily Green; January 9, 2008http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/eutrophic-hypoxic47010708 The world is getting familiar with the carbon cycle and how pumping carbon that's been buried for millions of years into the atmosphere causes some global problems. Well, get ready to learn about nitrogen. Like carbon, the nitrogen cycle is all out [...]

LSU, Ohio State team up in quest to save wetlands By John PopeTimes-Picayune; January 6, 2008http://www.nola.com/timespic/stories/index.ssf?/base/news-9/1199601173212120.xml&coll=1 The solution to restoring Louisiana's coastline and revitalizing the Gulf of Mexico starts on farms in Ohio and other Midwestern states.   That's the operating principle behind a 4 1/2-year-old partnership between Louisiana State and Ohio State universities -- [...]

Gulf Dead Zone Grows With Ethanol Demand By Roddy ScheerMSNBC, January 2, 2008Scientists believe that an oxygen-depleted “dead zone” in the Gulf of Mexico is growing rapidly as a result of Americans’ increasing appetite for ethanol, a carbon-neutral biofuel derived from corn that can be used as a gasoline additive or as E85, a gasoline [...]