Tag Archives: nitrogen runoff
‘A major punch in the gut’: Midwest rains projected to create Gulf dead zone
As rain deluged the Midwest this spring, commercial fisherman Ryan Bradley knew it was only a matter of time before the disaster reached him. All that water falling on all that fertilizer-enriched farmland would soon wend its way through streams and rivers into Bradley’s fishing grounds in the Gulf of Mexico, off the Mississippi coast. The nutrient excess would cause tiny algae to burst into bloom, then die, sink, and decompose on the ocean floor. That process would suck all the oxygen from the water, turning it toxic. Fish would suffocate, or flee, leaving Bradley and his fellow fishermen with nothing to harvest. >click to read<21:12
Green crabs, nitrogen identified as top threats to Maine’s softshell clams
Where ocean acidification happens as a result of burning fossil fuels, causing carbon dioxide to go into the water, Payne said, coastal acidification happens because of nitrogen runoff from fertilizer, sewage, pesticide and other manmade pollutants. continue
