TheBiologySpace.BioBlog

It matters to us because the gulf is one of the sources of our food supply. The dead zone hurts the coast because you can’t get any food from there, you have to go out further into the gulf to get to the food supply. The effects of the dead zone are that no animal life can be supported there lessening the population of the species of whoever would live there if there was no dead zone. The dead zone also effects how much food is brought in, effecting how much the population has to live off of and also it would decrease the total revenue of the fishing industry.

I agree with David’s assessment of the situation. Since the Gulf does play an enormous role in the lives of people living on or near the coast, how much food or revenue can be brought out of it is a huge concern. Hopefully with this reduced Dead Zone, more species will populate this newly aerated area. With any luck that could bring down some of the prices of seafood or seafood related products, giving us a little more money to spend on gas.

Supposedly the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico has shrunk to its record size. 8,000 square miles. Which is also 3,000 to 6,000 square miles smaller than proffesionals predicted it would be this year. Hurricane Dolly reduced the size of the dead zone by mixing the fresh water and salt water layers in the ocean allowing oxygen to reach the lower depths. The turbulent waters also mixed in more oxygen into the water. Therefore hurrican dolly definitely helped shrink the dead zone.

The dead zone matters to us because the Gulf of Mexico supplies the majority of the U.S’s seafood. If more and more organisms are dying from the dead zones on top of the fishing then our food supply will become low. Also the reduced oxygen levels affect the reproductive organs of many fish leading to less eggs and even no spawning at all. The effects of the dead zone are simply devasting to marine life and therefore the fishing industry and coastal industries of America will suffer. This not only affects us, but also the organisms that feed on the dying ones. The food chain gets completly messed up leading to ecosystems falling apart.

Thanks to the stirring up of the water in the Gulf by Hurricane Dolly, the dead zone has been reduced to its record size of 8,000 square miles. This was far less than the numbers predicted by scientists. However, this matter brings about some obvious questions. If hurricane occurrences have proved to shrink the size of the dead zone, then why do all predictions seem to have the same trend? Meaning all predictions contribute to an increase in the size of the dead zone. Quantitative predictions that show a decrease in the size of the dead zone have yet to be made, resulting in the surprised reactions of professionals.

First of all, the Gulf of Mexico provides almost half of the nation’s seafood, 40 percent to be exact. There are already problems dealing with toxins found in the water. A decrease in the water’s capability to hold and support aquatic life only adds to the current problems faced. If fish, shrimp, etc. populations drop, there will be an immediate negative impact on the economy. Fishing industries will greatly decline. Organisms higher up on the food chain will be affected, leading to a series of alterations not only in aquatic food chains, but also terrestrial food chains.

As mentioned in class, hurricanes are undoubtedly one of the worst natural disasters the Earth has been experiencing – devastating for humans, ruinous for vegetation along the coast, catastrophic to establishments…all under the wrath of these tropical cyclones. However, people often times overlook the good hurricanes do, including the act of shrinking the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico, although seemingly miniscule compared to the terrestrial damage done.

After hearing more and more about Hurricane Dolly and the act of shrinking the dead zone in the Gulf, I came to a speculative question: If a natural disaster, such as Hurricane Dolly, can “stir up” the dead zone, then what are the possibilities of doing this artificially? Floating machines using abiotic factors such as wind, sun, ocean waves, etc. as a source of energy seem ideal.

I pretty much agree with everyone here on their assessments. Hurricanes like Katrina, Gustav, and Ike are beneficial to areas like the ‘dead zone’ in the Gulf of Mexico because they stir up the water, creating more dissolved oxygen, which allows more organisms to flourish. And where do we get our seafood from? The Gulf of Mexico. If there are more living organisms in the gulf, that means we still have resources there that are beneficial to us. Plus, more fishing brings more money to our economy. And right now, our economy needs all the help it can get. Those hurricanes, though they brought mass destruction and chaos, also helped the gulf become less of a ‘dead zone,’ and more of an actual aquatic ecosystem.

The dead zone is relatively low in dissolved oxygen and thus relatively few organisms can exist there. This would be extremely problematic to the people living in the Gulf as well as any other organisms that get there sustenance from the dead zone. The food chain dwindles and causes larger animals who require more food then what is available to leave, killing the organisms that prey on them. This would effect the human population by lowering the amount of fish and other organisms that we can catch and then sell. The hurricane would fix a lot of these problems by aerating the water through turbulence and churning of the water. This would restore many organisms to the environment and bring about a change in the dead zone. Bringing back fish and other organisms that would all stimulate business.

I agree with Glenn-Eric’s assessment of the situation, we should be concerned for several reasons. First of all, one could never calculate the full extent that the dead zone and it’s affects on our biosphere. But an obvious result of the dead zone is that it dramatically effects marine life and therefore effects the fishing and coastal industries. This in turn not only affects us, but the organisms in that ecosystem, playing havoc with the food chain and possibly leading to an extinction of a species in that ecosystem.

The environment of the Gulf of Mexico greatly affects the economy of the region and the species living there. With a decrease in oxygen, there are fewer and fewer species able to survive; most secondary and tertiary consumers need oxygen in order to survive and this causes a smaller scale in terms of the food web of the ecosystem. While the “dead zone” may be detrimental in the long run, most fishermen appreciate it since the oxygen is present at the surface, thus more fish are present at the surface resulting in a bigger haul. While the prices of seafood can fluctuate, there is some control in the price and quantity of domestic seafood in the United States.

Well I am going to have to agree with Glen-Eric just like pretty much everyone. With the decrease of the dead zone more organisms can spread out there and this increases the space for organisms and the enviornment in which they live. The dead zone causes a halt for life creating a barrier between the 2 bodies of water and not allowing species to integrate possibly causing over population of some and too much predation of others.

Hurricanes are violent tropical winds that bring up the water around them. So the hurricane would be able to stir up the freshwater from the top layer of water and circulate it to the bottom. The lower saline water would drawn up and dispersed so its not as concentrated along the gulf. The water would now be able to retain oxygen and support some sort of life. Hurricanes maybe natures why of circulating the water so it is able to sustain life in regions that previously couldn’t.

It is interesting to see when things that harm humanity, beneifit nature. Like while a forestfire destroys thosands of dollars worth of property, it is a important part of the forests natural cycle. Here we are pulling up trees, and causing erosion and run off with our farms that feed us, harming the ocean, on the other side nature, you could say, does the same to us, knocking down our houses and causing harm to us. We seem to be in a consitant battle with nature, trying to dominate and rule her, while she seems to be in the very same struggle with us. We help kill her ocean, she knocks down our homes.

I agree with Brandon’s point of view, with the growth of dead zones there is less dissolved oxygen which leads to a decrease in organisms because the water becomes eutrophic. We have cause for concern because with the decrease in the organisms, we lose our source of seafood, a majority of it comes from the Gulf region. The apparent effect on the food chain is the loss of the various species that live in the Gulf and the Mississippi River because they cannot survive without the oxygen. The economic effects would be the loss of the fishing market which would lead to the social effects because people would lose jobs and struggle to survive.

I agree with Glenn-Eric’s point of view. There are many reasons why the dead zone matters to us. It affects many factors in our lives, for example, the aquatic environment. Like Glenn-Eric said, the reduced oxygen levels affect the reproductive organs of many fish, which further leads to less fish being produced, which then leads to affecting, not only our food systems, but other organisms too. It drastically affects the food web. Each link in each chain is important to the entire system. Without the marine level that eliminates other levels too leaving food scarce, and later on extinction:(.

Fertilizer runoff, packed with nutrients, leads to an increase in algae. When the algae die and are decomposed by aquatic microbes, oxygen consumption occurs. Consequently, the dissolved oxygen content of the water gradually decreases. Over time, if such conditions persist, the area of water morphs into a dead zone as ocean dwellers migrate to regions more oxygen-rich and therefore more suitable for life. Left behind is a body of water incapable of sustaining life. As everyone has already stated, dead zones result in a disruption of aquatic food chains as well as in possible economic despair.
Thanks to Hurricane Dolly, one of the largest dead zones on the earth has now been reduced in size. By stirring up the layers of the gulf waters, Dolly has introduced a higher oxygen concentration to the Gulf of Mexico. Unfortunately, the recovery process of dead zones, though possible, is slow. It is estimated that in order to heal the gulf waters, nitrogen use surrounding the Mississippi River would have to be reduced to approximately fifty percent of what it currently is. Such a drastic change is unlikely to occur anytime soon due to the high cost involved and to the fact that while the Gulf of Mexico would benefit from the reduction of nitrogen use, the agricultural industry in the Midwest definitely would not.

It is evident that hurricanes do benefit the environment by decreasing the size of dead zones. However, in the end, the total damage to the environment is comparably greater than the extent of the advantage. And although I appreciate the positive spin on natural disasters, the problem of dead zones still remain. So the real concern is not how hurricanes can diminish the size of dead zones, but more importantly, what we can do to put an end to dead zones.

I agree with Jen that an artificial treatment would be a great idea. Another option would be to use storm drains to allow fertilizers and pecticides to flow into larger sewage systems. Although this would only eliminate the one of the factors that create dead zones it would positively influence the size and degree of dead zones, making the Earth cleaner and healthier for all organisms.

This dead zone matters to us in a few different ways; it effects us because there is a rather large mass in the ocean where no life can be supported. Which prevents fishing, as many people have mentioned. Yet more importantly it prevents life. Just the simple existence of man-kind has destroyed millions of areas of habitat on land, and now we bring out death march to the sea. While we’ve become more aware of our actions they still happen, and we still cannot take care of our planet like nature can, hurricanes are just one of natures many ways to control the plants temperature and balance the biospheres. This affects the larger biosphere by decreasing the amount of fish in the water, shirking the gene pool and thus causing gene diversity to shrink as well. This dead zone also causing schools of fish that swim into it to die from lack of oxygen, making a sort of highway that once one enters onto, never manages to get off. This decreases the amount of food available to larger predators, who like the fish, enter the dead zone and die. This can affect the economy by hurting the commercial fishing market. Its social side effects should be rather positive instead of negative. It should cause humanity to rally behind another cause, to fix another mistake that we’ve made.

I know you have now heard this pleanty of times, but it matter because the Gulf supplies us with many of our foods. If there is no fish in this dead zone, than we loose a great deal of our seafood supplied by the Gulf. If those fish were to die off it will take the whole food web down with it, without the smaller fish to feed on how do the other live? I agree with Andrea’s point of view, in that there is now an useless body of water in which fish may enter but cannot live. One thing i did not, however, think of was the point that Glenn-Eric brought up. The fishes reproductive organs being affected by the reduced oxygen which affects the amount of fish being produced. Which makes it nearly impossible to start new life in the water, again taking away our food source.

There are some very intelligent responses stirring over this topic. I agree with Jen on the idea of artificially “stirring up” the dead zone with abiotic factors, but I think it will only take more time and money to accomplish this goal. If we just allow the hurricanes to do the only good they can do, I believe that is good enough for these dead zones. If time and money isn’t that big of an issue, then i would totally back up Jen’s proposal of artificially shrinking the dead zone.
Although hurricanes clearly can assist the environment by decreasing the size of dead zones, they eliminate and destruct other habitats of fish and other life forms in the water on their way to decreasing the size of the dead zone. To make matters worse, hurricanes destroy habitats on land and take the lives of many people. Hurricanes may diminish the size of dead zones, but the bigger issue should be protecting the homes and families of people living on the coast.

The dead zone decreasing means that the seafood industry in America would increase, as there would be more types of fish, and the food chains could also be affected, because when the population of multiple species of fish change, there is bound to be at least some change in the food web.

The dead zone brings along many different effects with it. Like many others have already said, the dead zone majorly affects aquatic life. When the dead zone appears every summer it unfortunately coincides with different marine animals’ active mating and reproductive season. This can substantially decrease population of fish and therefore economically hurt the fish market. The dead zone also allows less oxygen to reach the bottom of the ocean, killing many marine animals which cannot receive enough oxygen. As we have learned previously, all animals in the food chain are important. Killing one animal can end the food chain as is, and sadly may end a generation of species. These are some of the many effects the dead zone has.

It’s agreed that hurricanes are the “worst” natural disasters that the planet has to offer but it’s only viewed as the worst to humans. Hurricanes, as discussed, are mixing up and reducing the size of the dead zone in the gulf and therefore creating the chance of aquatic life in those areas. I feel the idea that humans claim hurricanes to be so horrible is selfish. Hurricanes benefit more to the earth in the long run than it damages humanity. We’re the cause of the growing dead zone even though we need it to support us for our food and economy flow. More than that, we need the abiotic limiting factor of the exponentially growing population size of humans. According to the Population Reference Bureau, the population in the US will shoot from today’s 303 to 438 billion by 2050, definitely a scary thought considering the impact of each and every human on our ONE planet that’s struggling already to support us. Hurricanes are needed by us for its attempts to keep our population low and it seems to have been doing its job. Hurricane Mitch in 1998 generated a death toll of 11,000, the highest recorded since 1900. I do value human life, but for the greater good for our planet to be able to support our children and our childrens’ children, we need to help correct the damage done by us in the past with any means possible.

I would have to agree with Andrea. The dead zone does matter to us homosapiens and sea animals as well. The fertilizer runoff is full of nutrients that lead to an increase in algae which is better for sea life. When oxygen is reduced the low levels affect the reproductive organs of many fish leading to a decrease in fish being produced. This affects our food systems and other organisms as well. This affects our food web as well. As we learned before in class, without producers there is no food web. What we also learned in class is that hurricanes stir up the water and all the layers of the water introducing a higher oxygen concentration to the body of water. This allows life to form again where there once was a dead zone and no oxygen.

I believe that if we lived in Florida or in any of the eastern states we would not have this same view on the dead zone. To them, their source of sea food comes straight from the Atlantic Ocean. For us, Texans, we should be able to depend on the Gulf of Mexico as a food source. We should be able to obtain great sea food from their without worrying about the lack of oxygen in the water unable to support life. This does matter to us because of these reasons. Also, because the dead zone has been shrunk, it might allow us to have better foreign affairs. With neighboring country Mexico so close to our border, by having this common fishing ground we might be able to form a greater bond with Mexico through food trade and labor we could be of assist to them. This also has an effect on aquatic food chains because the small bacteria’s that were allowed to survive in the dead zone were peacefully living without fear of predators. Now, predators of these small bacteria can live in their habitat therefore starting a new aquatic food chain. This nasty detrimental hurricane now can have at least one positive impact on our society. While there are definite negative results of hurricanes this is one result that will have social and economic influences in our society.

The ‘dead zone’ matters to us because like everyone else has said, it affects our country as a whole. If one part of the economy, is failing, in this case the fishing industry, the whole economy will suffer. The side effects of this ‘dead zone’ has on the biosphere is enormous. Organisms are all tied together, from the phytoplankton to the sharks to us. If one part of the food chain is wiped out, then it affects us all. If the lowest part of the food chain, the producers, cannot survive in this ‘dead zone’ then no other organisms can survive. With the hurricanes, these ‘dead zones’ get stirred up, putting dissolved oxygen into the waters, slowly allowing organisms to flourish. They in turn can try to balance the runoff of fertilizer and try and make the waters sustain life. The winds and waves from the hurricanes also are able to mix up the fresh and salt water, allowing oxygen to enter the water. With the boost of oxygen, more organisms can live, boosting the fishing industry, in turn boosting the country’s economy.

Granted that the shrinking of the dead zone seems rather minuscule in the grand scheme of life, it does have diverse affects on the nearby environments. The size of the dead zone decreasing does not directly impact our lives but has somewhat of a domino effect. Due to the lack of oxygen in the lower levels of the dead zone bottom-dwellers are not able to escape, thus resulting in their deaths in large proportions. This in turn disrupts the food chain, resulting in less number of secondary and tertiary consumers. Also the Gulf Coast Region is a area in which fishing for shrimp and crab takes place. The reduction of crustaceans disrupts the fishing numbers, thus increasing the price of such products.

This issue definetly should be addressed since the gulf coast borders the east coast of texas which could affect beaches that we might go to such as Galveston.
Southern states are known for containing vast fields for growing crops, (in fact the demand for ethanol and corn by-products is at an all time record high) in which the excess fertilizer runs off into into our rivers which end up flowing into the mississippi river and ultimately the gulf coast, causing excessive algae growth therefore a larger dead zone would form along with less oxygen content and less life.
The dead zone would have a huge effect on the aquatic food chains since when the large amounts of algae die, they sink to the bottom and deplete the oxygen levels choking the existing animal life. For example menhaden are a type of fish that are extremely vital in the gulf of mexico as they convert algae into usuable food sources providing the link from the primary producers to the upper levels on the food chain.
In other words, without this tiny fish, the whole gulf aquatic ecosystem would fall apart. However with the increase crops due to more people demanding them because of population increases, the fish could always use some extra help because the algae growth is increasing so much that it’s overshadowing the fish population (not to mention this particular species is vastly overfished) so any hurricane would definetly provide a HUGE helping hand by stirring up the waters, therefore creating less surface algae allowing more oxygen flow and more aquatic life can be supported in the long run. With our increasing crop production we definetly could use all of the hurricanes we can get in the gulf coast to benefit marine ecosystems.

I agree with Ashley, in that hurricanes do have a positive effect on the Gulf of Mexico’s “dead zone”, however I just wanted to add that hurricanes can be extremely detrimental to the parts of the gulf that do sustain life. I am an avid SCUBA diver, and have witnessed this firsthand. In 2003 I dove in Cozumel, Mexico and found it to be richly full of life, containing some of the best reef I’ve seen. I returned in 2006, shortly after hurricane Wilma and found that nearly one third of the existing reef had been destroyed. Most corals had been bleached as silt was deposited by the hurricane, and there was an overall lack of fishes and other marine life. So although hurricanes help areas like the dead zone, there is as always in nature a tradeoff.

I think that this is a way for nature to make up for the damage that we have done to its ecosystems. it allows that the ocean will be stirred up and help bring life back to that area of the ocean. I wonder though, if phytoplankton are plants, wouldn’t fertilizers help their production of oxygen durring the photosynthetic processes?

It is matters to us because if there wasn’t a dead zone in the gulf there could be more economic prosperity. This is because without the dead zone sea creatures would live closer to the coast and then be far easier to catch then having to go all the way out in the ocean. If the dead zone dissapeared then aquatic animals would have a larger space to occupy and species would have more places to hide. This could affect the food chain by fish having more areas to duck away from predators in thus causing more of the hunted to live.

With the runoff from farms in the United States and fertilizers from that runoff being poured into the ocean eutrophication is present at levels unhealthy for oxygen dependent life other then plants in the ocean. Without this oxygen life is impossible or at least limited. Another issue is that oxygenated water from the Mississippi River cannot mix properlly with the lower level oxygenated salf water of the Gulf Coast thus, in essence, requiring a mechanism for stirring. This mechanism is the devistating winds and currents of hurricanes that plow through the mainland. This raises the interesting notion that a hurricane of devistating force can benefit the ecology of the waters more then it devistates the ecology of the United States and surrounding countries? Should we worry about their effects or should we praise them? Either way the outcome is great in its consequences.

I don’t think it’s that big of a deal. Regardless of how much the dead zone reduced it’s still a crazy distance. Unless stir ups like this occur again, I couldn’t see this as a significant change. Then again, my views would change if I was a fisherman.