Gulf of Mexico Hypoxia, A.K.A. “The Dead Zone¶
Rabalais, N. N., Turner, R. E., & Wiseman, W. J. (2002). Gulf of Mexico Hypoxia, A.K.A. “The Dead Zone. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics.
Cited by¶
6 citations across 6 artifacts.
Each citation links to the sentence it supports in the citing article.
Domain-specific¶
- Biogeochemical Cycle
- Industrial Haber-Bosch fixation has roughly doubled the natural rate of reactive-nitrogen production; applied as fertilizer, the surplus nitrogen runs off farmland into rivers and reaches the Gulf of Mexico, where it fuels algal blooms whose decay strips oxygen from bottom waters, producing a summer hypoxic "dead zone" that has averaged on the order of 15,000 km²
This sourceAnnual Review paper on Gulf of Mexico hypoxia showing that stratification plus high Mississippi nutrient loads produce the annual dead zone, with the riverine nitrate flux having tripled as the condition worsened since the 1950s.
Supported in partVerified against the publisher's abstract
“The second largest zone of coastal hypoxia (oxygen-depleted waters) in the world is found on the northern Gulf of Mexico continental shelf adjacent to the outflows of the Mississippi and Atchafalaya Rivers.”
- Industrial Haber-Bosch fixation has roughly doubled the natural rate of reactive-nitrogen production; applied as fertilizer, the surplus nitrogen runs off farmland into rivers and reaches the Gulf of Mexico, where it fuels algal blooms whose decay strips oxygen from bottom waters, producing a summer hypoxic "dead zone" that has averaged on the order of 15,000 km²
- Biogeochemical Cycling
- Each summer this produces a hypoxic zone that has reached thousands of square miles, killing or displacing bottom-dwelling life and damaging fisheries
This sourceThe review establishing the northern Gulf's recurring summer hypoxic zone as the world's second largest, its intensification as Mississippi nitrate flux tripled, and its destruction of benthic communities and damage to fisheries.
Supported in partVerified against the source
- Each summer this produces a hypoxic zone that has reached thousands of square miles, killing or displacing bottom-dwelling life and damaging fisheries
- Harmful Algal Bloom
- This decomposition-driven hypoxia is the mechanism linking HABs to dead-zone formation: the Gulf of Mexico hypoxic zone, which reaches 15,000–22,000 square kilometres most summers, is the downstream consequence of Mississippi River nutrient loading fuelling surface blooms that then decompose into a seasonal anoxic zone
This sourceThe northern Gulf of Mexico's annually formed hypoxic water mass, produced as high nutrient loads enhance primary production and dominant from spring through late summer. The northern Gulf of Mexico shelf's seasonal hypoxic water mass, formed annually as Mississippi and Atchafalaya nutrient loads enhance primary production under summer stratification.
Supported in partVerified against the work's full text
“The physical structure of the water column and high nutrient loads that enhance primary production lead to an annual formation of the hypoxic water mass that is dominant from spring through late summer.”
- This decomposition-driven hypoxia is the mechanism linking HABs to dead-zone formation: the Gulf of Mexico hypoxic zone, which reaches 15,000–22,000 square kilometres most summers, is the downstream consequence of Mississippi River nutrient loading fuelling surface blooms that then decompose into a seasonal anoxic zone
- Hypoxia
- Each summer, nutrient runoff (largely nitrogen and phosphorus from Mississippi-basin agriculture) fuels algal blooms whose decomposition consumes dissolved oxygen in the stratified bottom waters, driving them into hypoxia — dissolved oxygen below roughly 2 mg/L — across many thousands of square kilometres of continental shelf.
This sourceA review of northern Gulf of Mexico hypoxia showing high nutrient loads and summer stratification driving an annual hypoxic water mass on the Mississippi-influenced shelf.
Supported in partVerified against the work's full text
“The physical structure of the water column and high nutrient loads that enhance primary production lead to an annual formation of the hypoxic water mass that is dominant from spring through late summer.”
- Each summer, nutrient runoff (largely nitrogen and phosphorus from Mississippi-basin agriculture) fuels algal blooms whose decomposition consumes dissolved oxygen in the stratified bottom waters, driving them into hypoxia — dissolved oxygen below roughly 2 mg/L — across many thousands of square kilometres of continental shelf.
- Nitrogen Cycle
- There it fuels a spring phytoplankton bloom; when that biomass sinks and decomposes, bacterial respiration strips oxygen from the bottom waters, producing a seasonal hypoxic "dead zone" spanning thousands of square kilometres that displaces or kills bottom-dwelling life until autumn mixing breaks it up
This sourceReview of northern Gulf of Mexico hypoxia describing an annually formed hypoxic water mass dominant from spring through late summer and the elimination of organisms where oxygen falls below about 2 mg l−1.
Supported in partVerified against the work's full text
“The physical structure of the water column and high nutrient loads that enhance primary production lead to an annual formation of the hypoxic water mass that is dominant from spring through late summer.”
- There it fuels a spring phytoplankton bloom; when that biomass sinks and decomposes, bacterial respiration strips oxygen from the bottom waters, producing a seasonal hypoxic "dead zone" spanning thousands of square kilometres that displaces or kills bottom-dwelling life until autumn mixing breaks it up
- Turbidity Plume
- Along its path the coarse sand settles out near the delta while fine silts and clays stay suspended and travel farthest, and the plume's dissolved nutrient load (nitrogen from the watershed) fuels an algal bloom whose decay draws down oxygen, producing the recurring Gulf "dead zone."
This sourceShows that high Mississippi-Atchafalaya nutrient loads, by enhancing primary production in a stratified water column, drive the annual formation of the northern Gulf of Mexico hypoxic zone.
Supported in partVerified against the source
- Along its path the coarse sand settles out near the delta while fine silts and clays stay suspended and travel farthest, and the plume's dissolved nutrient load (nitrogen from the watershed) fuels an algal bloom whose decay draws down oxygen, producing the recurring Gulf "dead zone."
Verification¶
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