By: Laurence Mee
- dead and dying animals begin to wash ashore.
- 60 million tons of bottom-living (or benthic) life perished from hypoxia - too little oxygen in the water for them to survive - in a swath of sea so oxygen- deprived that it could no longer support non-bacterial life.
- When bacteria consume oxygen to break down the masses of organic matter that result from animal wastes and the dead bodies of organisms that multiply during eutrophication.
- Oxygen finds its way into water from either photosynthesis or physical diffusion from the air at the sea surface.
- low water flows lead to slow replenishment of oxygen in bottom waters.
- Rising fossil-fuel use effluent front he mass breeding of food animals and intensive farming, and the construction of sewage systems that empty into bodies of water all lead to greater nutrient emissions into watersheds.
- Phytoplankton called diatoms are consumed by copepods, minuscule zooplanktonic crustaceans serves food for fish.
- Increases nutrient concentrations affect the mix of phytoplankton species, such as diatom, it becomes out numbered by smaller or less digestible types.
- When eutrophication produces massive phytoplankton blooms.
- Sea resulted from modernized farming practices, including intensive use of fertilizers and the establishment of huge animal production facilities.
- Oxygen levels, particularly near the seabed, began to fall.
- Within six years the profound drop off in nutrient influx to shrinkage of the dead zone.
- Eutrophication often causes alterations in ecosystem composition that are not easily reversed.
- To shrink nutrient loads, we must put in place that keep nitrogen and phosphorus on the land and out of the water.
- Recovery of the Black Sea ecosystem can occur, European authorities have to take steps to ensure that renewed ecosystem development does not lead to the resurgence of terrestrial nutrient release to the sea.
- Government must reduce the intensity of commercial fishing activities enough to allow depleted stocks of piscine predators to recover.
Many coastal seas round the world is a dead zone. Dead zone is created by a process called eutrophication, the over enrichment of the sea by nutrients that promote plant growth. It is a good fertilizer but it also leads to disruptive algal blooms and other unwanted effects. Plants enter the food chain, organic bottom matter feeds the animal living there. It result the increase of nitrogen and phosphorus but there is lower oxygen. when bacteria consume oxygen to break down the masses of organic matter that was from animal wastes and dead bodies of organisms. Below the sea covered by dead plants, also feature strong density. There are some ways for recovery, and the government must reduce the intensity of commercial fishing activities.
After reading this article, it was surprising how beautiful seas are dying caused by human beings. We all should learn how to prevent dead zone. Humans should also stop being so careless about the nature. The sea is lacking oxygen, causing the fishes and plants to die. Oxygen finds its way into water from either photosynthesis or physical diffusion from the air at the sea surface. But the bacterial activity at the bottom makes oxygen depletion and the death of existing plants and animals.