Mitigation Strategies and Solutions
SCI 275
Final Project
Mitigation Strategies and Solutions
Michelle A. Freeman
Axia College of University of Phoenix
Water Resources and Ocean Sustainability: The Dead Zone The earth’s water resources are inexhaustible. Or at least a majority of the global population believes the ocean will always produce food, provide a living for a portion of the population, and will remain a pristine getaway for vacationers. However, dead zones, a major threat to the health of all bodies of water in the world, are a problem that the populations of the world must face. Entire aquatic ecosystems and habitats are threatened by this growing problem. While global warming is now a possible suspect in causing dead zones, water run-off flowing down river from farms using nitrogen rich fertilizers are causing dead zones in global water resources.
What are Dead Zones? Journalist Cheryl Lyn Dybus, a specialist in marine sciences simply defines dead zones as, “coastal waters too low in oxygen to sustain life” (Dybus, 2005). Stanford University researchers in a 2005 study state that when water drains into waterways from nitrogen enriched fertilizer treated farmland either during heavy rains or flooding, entering into larger bodies of water, “sudden explosions of marine algae are triggered, capable of disrupting ocean ecosystems and producing dead zones” (Environment, 2005).
Problem Factors: Living and Non-living Nature and the ocean naturally produce nutrients from the bottom of the ocean to the surface. This regular cycle causes the production of algae blooms or phytoplankton, food for other aquatic life. Through the introduction of nitrogen, phosphorous, and emissions released from human use of fossil fuels into the planet’s water systems, a toxic overproduction of phytoplankton is produced, depleting life-giving oxygen from the water. This lack of oxygen, or hypoxia, causes larger organisms to die. These areas then become “dead zones” (Environment, 2005).
Human
Final Project
Mitigation Strategies and Solutions
Michelle A. Freeman
Axia College of University of Phoenix
Water Resources and Ocean Sustainability: The Dead Zone The earth’s water resources are inexhaustible. Or at least a majority of the global population believes the ocean will always produce food, provide a living for a portion of the population, and will remain a pristine getaway for vacationers. However, dead zones, a major threat to the health of all bodies of water in the world, are a problem that the populations of the world must face. Entire aquatic ecosystems and habitats are threatened by this growing problem. While global warming is now a possible suspect in causing dead zones, water run-off flowing down river from farms using nitrogen rich fertilizers are causing dead zones in global water resources.
What are Dead Zones? Journalist Cheryl Lyn Dybus, a specialist in marine sciences simply defines dead zones as, “coastal waters too low in oxygen to sustain life” (Dybus, 2005). Stanford University researchers in a 2005 study state that when water drains into waterways from nitrogen enriched fertilizer treated farmland either during heavy rains or flooding, entering into larger bodies of water, “sudden explosions of marine algae are triggered, capable of disrupting ocean ecosystems and producing dead zones” (Environment, 2005).
Problem Factors: Living and Non-living Nature and the ocean naturally produce nutrients from the bottom of the ocean to the surface. This regular cycle causes the production of algae blooms or phytoplankton, food for other aquatic life. Through the introduction of nitrogen, phosphorous, and emissions released from human use of fossil fuels into the planet’s water systems, a toxic overproduction of phytoplankton is produced, depleting life-giving oxygen from the water. This lack of oxygen, or hypoxia, causes larger organisms to die. These areas then become “dead zones” (Environment, 2005).
Human
References: Agriculture a Threat to Ocean Life?. (2005, May). Environment, Retrieved October 5, 2008, from MasterFILE Premier database. Axia College. (2008). A management and sustainable plan to address overfishing. [Appendix]. Retrieved September 9, 2008, from Axia College, Week Six, SCI 275-Assignment: Water Resource Plan. Part A. Berg, L.R., & Hager, M.C. (2007). Visualizing environmental science. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons. Center for Sponsored Coastal Ocean Research. (2008). Hypoxia & nutrient pollution. Retrieved October 5, 2008, from http://www.cop.noaa.gov/stressors/pollution/welcome.html Chesapeake Bay Foundation. (2008). The Chesapeake Bay’s dead zone. Retrieved October 5, 2008, from http://www.cbf.org/site/PageServer?pagename=resources_facts_deadzone Dybas, C. (2005, July). Dead zones spreading in world oceans. Bioscience, 55(7), 552-557. Retrieved October 3, 2008, from MasterFILE Premier database. Juncosa, B. (2008, October). Suffocating seas. Scientific American, 299(4), 20-22. Retrieved October 3, 2008, from MasterFILE Premier database