A scientist will map the extent of a red tide bloom during the course of a hypoxia-mapping project cruise funded by the National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science’s Gulf of Mexico Ecosystems & Hypoxia Assessment program. The bloom, which was discovered August 10, caused massive fish kills and respiratory and eye irritation along the upper Texas coast. Local [...]
In yet another display of the inexorable interdependence of Earth’s ecosystems, a bad summer for Midwestern farmland has turned out to be a good one for life in the Gulf of Mexico. Researchers from the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium have found that this summer’s hypoxic zone in the Gulf of Mexico – the oxygen-devoid area [...]
Last weekend, media outlets reported a NOAA announcement that this year’s Gulf of Mexico low oxygen ‘dead zone’ is the fourth smallest since 1985. A severe drought baking the nation’s midsection is responsible for less nutrient-laden Mississippi River water that triggers the annual phenomenon. By contrast, last year’s floods resulted in low oxygen over an [...]
2012 Gulf Hypoxia in Brief Mid-summer forecast: 1,197 to 6,213 square miles June survey result: 295 square miles Mid-summer survey result: 2,889 Mid-Summer Survey Results Results of an annual mid-summer hypoxic zone survey by the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium found the fourth smallest dead zone on record in the northern Gulf of Mexico. The LUMCON-led team [...]
The importance of the Gulf of Mexico to the US economy is significant. The National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science has invested over $66M in public funds for research into harmful algal blooms, nutrient over-enrichment contributions to hypoxia, ecological effects of sea level rise (EESLR), and coral reefs in the Gulf of Mexico since 1990. [...]
Scientists from Louisiana and Michigan have wildly different predictions for the size of this year’s “dead zone” of low-oxygen water in the Gulf of Mexico. Forecasts released Thursday say it will either be the smallest in nearly a quarter century at just under 1,200 square miles, or five times that big and a bit above [...]
Two Gulf of Mexico “dead zone” forecasts released Thursday could hardly be more staggeringly different. The wide range of the dead zone’s size in the forecases is due to scientists’ use of two different forecast models, and the eventual size of the zone this year could help the scientific community understand which model works best. [...]
2012 Gulf Hypoxia in Brief Forecast: 1,197 to 6,213 square miles Results of preliminary June survey cruise find area to be 295 mi2 August 1: Results of mid-summer survey cruise NOAA Hypoxia Forecast In June 2012 scientists from the National Centers for Coastal Science-funded Northern Gulf of Mexico Ecosystems and Hypoxia Assessment (NGOMEX) program issued a divergent outlook for [...]